Grandma’s Feather Bed (And Darth Luke)

Posted on December 24, 2017 by TJ

I hope each of you have a restful, peaceful, and delightful Christmas Day!

Hannah jumped into EJ’s lap for protection from Darth Luke.

Last night when EJ and I got into bed, Hannah Joy jumped into bed between us. Ah, well, we let her. I’m not sure we could have prevented her, but we also let her sleep with us to keep her safe from Luke. Luke is usually the sweetest and gentlest cat, but I think he has gone over to the Dark Side. He follows Hannah and lurks in strategic places–like doorways–to hiss and swat at she when she gets close. I’m beginning to think of Luke as “Darth Luke” and I hear Darth Vader’s theme music in my head whenever I see him. The other cats and Hannah get along fine. Luke is beginning to irritate Hannah and she’s been setting him some boundaries. Hopefully they can work out a truce.

After Hannah settled on the bed between EJ and me, Kee-Kee walked up and settled in his normal spot above my head on my pillow. Then a cat came to lie at my feet and another one at EJ’s feet. I told EJ that I felt like “Grandma’s Feather Bed,” a cute song that John Denver sang. We aren’t grandparents and we don’t have a feather bed, but lying in a bed surrounded by multiple animals, I thought of the chorus describing all the kids and animals sleeping in one bed:

It could hold eight kids and four hound dogs
And a piggy we stole from the shed
We didn’t get much sleep but we had a lot of fun
On grandma’s feather bed.

Here is a Youtube video of John Denver singing the song:

This morning EJ and I drove to TSC to buy Hannah Joy a dog kennel. We had never thought we’d ever put a dog in a kennel. I never could see the sense of putting dogs in kennels unless there were special circumstances. It’s always seemed to much like “I will play with you when I feel like it, then put you away when I don’t.” Our dogs have always been a part of our family and included in every aspect of our lives. However, we are going to go to the theater tomorrow to see the new Star Wars movie, and we don’t know how Hannah will act by herself. And we also don’t know what Darth Luke will do to her. We aren’t really sure if we will actually put Hannah in the kennel or just shut her–or Luke–in a room. But at least we have the kennel if we decide to use it. When we are sure that all the animals get alone and do ok alone, we will use the kennel for other purposes.

Hannah Joy went with us and I waited in the surburban with her while EJ went into TSC. A TSC employee helped EJ load the kennel in the suburban. They got to talking about Hannah and the guy said he has raised pit bulls since he was a child. He said that actually “pit bull” is not a breed. It’s what people involved in dog fighting started calling the dogs who they put in a pit to fight. A “pit bull” is actually an American Bull Terrier. They are incredibly sweet and loyal family dogs. It’s a shame that people have given these dogs such a bad reputation. He thought Hannah was a mix–with maybe a bit of lab in her. He suggested we love the crap out of Hannah for the first month or so. (We don’t have to be told THAT.) Meeting this guy was a blessing.

Hannah Joy has been my shadow today, following me around everywhere. She jumps into my lap when I sit down and sleeps on me. She seems to be very intelligent and learns fast. She is curious about everything and very expressive. She barks when strangers approach, but isn’t yappy. She viciously protected me from the vacuum cleaner today (so I put her into the bedroom until I was finished. We feed her a cup of her special food every four hours. She gets excited when she sees her food and jumps and walks on her hind legs. We make her sit until we put the food bowl down on the floor. She understands the “sit” command. I noticed that whenever I said “sit,” she sat and stuck out her paw. I realized that she was “shaking hands.”

She’s an incredible dog and we are all very glad she has joined our family.

We are supposed to get hit with a snowstorm tonight and through tomorrow. Meteorologists have forecasted that we could get more than a foot of snow. I hope we will be able to get out to the movie tomorrow…