Until last week we had a smart dog and a dumb dog; a lovey dog and a shy dog; a couch dog and a floor dog. We had two delightful dogs who wanted nothing to do with one another but to live independently in the same space.
Then, after a month of rote training, Tiberius learned to sit; this made our lives about a million times easier. See, Murphy practically speaks English, but Ty… mostly we were wrangling Ty around the house by brute force and sheer will. Now, seemingly overnight, we have two dogs who “get it.” And getting it has transformed Ty into another dog entirely. He is engaged, he is affectionate, he is funny. He is part of the family.
The other thing that changed last week is this:
We went to Ikea and got this sofa for the mud room. Nothing fancy, it’s in the mud room after all, but it fits, the cushion covers are machine washable, and for whatever reason every furry thing in our apartment loves it. It has become command central for the pets.
With the arrival of that sofa another dynamic changed n our home. The dogs became… buddies. All of a sudden they’re interested in each other. They play, they sniff, and they’ve even started lying around together.
It’s like that sofa in the mud room was an all access pass to the rest of the house for Ty. He lays around like it’s his full time job.
I have never met a lazier dog- or a snugglier one.
And just when we were thanking our lucky stars that he’s not interested in sleeping on the bed with us like Murphy is he spent some time downstairs with the neighbors, discovered how gosh darn comfortable beds can be, and has now taken up residence in ours.
I don’t mind so much. We’re a dogs-on-the-furniture kind of family. All the better for the snuggling.
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