5505. That’s how many nights Storm has curled up on her blanket in her corner of my bed in her 15 years. I don’t know what made me calculate that last night after she hopped up and settled in.
I have had a setter sleeping at the foot of my bed since I was 11. I don’t want to know how many nights that is in total. Growing up, the family’s setters did not get onto the furniture yet my own dog did sleep on my bed.
The spot on my bed had traditionally been reserved for the senior dog in my household. Yet Storm joined her mother, my beloved Tweed, when just a puppy. I don’t know why, some things I just don’t question. When Tweed passed she left such a void that her other daughter, Sally, was invited to sleep on that corner of the bed. Sally’s passing last fall hit so hard that her spot remains empty in memory. Her granddaughter Dance slept there for a few nights last month when she was feeling lost after her puppies went to their homes. But she now contentedly sleeps next to her older daughter Crush on the sofa in the back living room.
Several of the new puppy owners report that their young'uns are already sleeping in their bed with them, despite the best laid plans for them to sleep in a crate. Sometimes the circles of life are good dogs curled in a ball at the foot of the bed.
Outside of field time my bird dogs have always been happiest when they’re stretched out, or curled up next to me. A setter sleeping at my feet next to the fireplace after a good day afield is a perfect ending to happy tail-wagging days. She’s also pretty comfy perched on the bed pillows.
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