Cooper’s blue chair

When we were about to bring Cooper to his/our forever home after his amputation, we realized we were in a bit of a conundrum since both puppies wanted to sleep on the bed.  I got the brilliant idea to get a child’s bed and put it alongside of our bed so he would sleep there.  While driving past an old friend’s house, who happened to be the first dog person I connected with when I first came to Spencer, lo and behold there, in her front yard, was a child’s bed with no sign on the front saying “FREE”, like people often do around here.  I couldn’t believe it, but we always say Dog works in mysterious ways.  I backed up the car, drove up    
her driveway, pounded on her door; she wasn’t home.  I said, “What the heck,” and put the child’s bed in my car (it just squeezed in to the way-back of my Subaru — have I mentioned how much I love my car?).  I called her from my iPhone, “Hey, haven’t seen you guys in a while, hope you’re ok.  Anyway, I just saw that child’s bed at the end of your driveway and, well, I took it.  Hope that was ok.  If it wasn’t ok, call me back and let me know.”  I should mention that I never drive past her house on my way to the grocery store (that’s where I was going)… ever.  Weird, huh?

I got the child’s bed home, I was so excited at the freaky coincidence!  Of course, Gil pointed out that it was too big for our tiny little bedroom, and how on Earth was I going to get in and out of bed if it was alongside, since the metal-framed bed has built in headboard and footboard (see photo, above) as well as protective sidebars to prevent said child from falling out.  Groan!  Oh well, child’s bed gets relegated to the basement where the cats slept on it for months (another friend managed to find me a barely-used mattress that fit perfectly!), and then one day I brought it upstairs into the guest room to use it exactly for the purpose intended — uh, sort of.  Ok, truth? Cooper and Charlie use it to hop up onto the antique brass bed which is way too high for even the most sprightly of dogs to jump onto.

But that’s not what I’m here to tell you about today, oh no, that’s not it at all.  It’s the blue chair!  Once the trundle bed (ha ha) was banished to the laundry room/cat bedroom/icky basement, I went in search of option #2 for Cooper, who was still recovering from aforementioned amputation, but was destined to arrive on our doorstep any minute.  I had recalled seeing some pictures of him, when he still had four legs, sitting on a lawn chair… he seemed to have an affinity for the things (still does) so I figured I’d find something similar, but possibly for indoor use.

A-ha! Wal-Mart enters the picture.  Wally World has these great chairs that are sort of like the kind you’d keep in your car’s trunk for viewing your kid’s soccer game or the next tailgate at Gillette Stadium.  Only these chairs are made for indoors, slightly larger, cushiony, aimed at dorm-dwelling college-bound kids.  (Hey, it was August, whatd’ya want?)  There I am, in the middle of Wally World, I took the chair out of the box, unfolded it from its collapsed position, and checked it out.  I sat in it, I measured how high up off the floor it was, I imagined a Charlie-sized dog, minus one leg, curled up in it.  Perfect!  I heaved it into my cart.  While I was at it, across the aisle, I spied a beanbag chair throwback from the ’70s, ah memories.  I jammed it into the cart as option #3.

Blue chair was a dismal failure.  Firstly, once again, me and my measuring skills (not!), it didn’t quite fit beside the bed.  Secondly, both dogs (Charlie and Hobie) looked at it like it was a foreign invader from another planet.  “Get thee the hell out of our room!” they seemed to cry in unison.  I relegated blue chair to the (ahem) “dining room” which, if you’ve been to our house isn’t for dining at all, unless you count three dogs chomping on rawhides while sprawled across the teeny-tiny floor.  Our dining room is the library/music room.  It’s where grandma’s Hammond B3 church organ resides, along with gazillions of CDs, photos, DVDs, books and of course a computer.  We have a seating issue in our house — if you come to our abode, be prepared to stand… that is, until blue chair made its appearance.  We’ve used blue chair quite a few times since I hurled it into that cart at Wal-Mart.  But no, no dog ever used it for a bed.

Until recently!  You see, the neighbor (who lives on the street BEHIND us and who was, up until recently purportedly… how do I put this nicely? well, “not a dog person” how’s ‘at?) they got a dog!  Yup! And where’s the best place to look out the window and spy on the new dog if you’re a k9 in k2’s pack?  You guessed it!  Blue chair!!

Charlie was first, he hopped up there and then decided “Hey!  This is comfortable!” and took a snooze one day.  But blue chair was originally supposed to be Cooper’s, and it took him five months, but lately, for the last couple of days, there he’s been, sleeping in blue chair!!

Author: Kathy Mandell

Kathy Mandell has shared her life with many dogs and writes essays about them (and cats). View all posts by Kathy Mandell