Three Black Spots

Sweet sleeper bed

When Ayesha was a little baby, we hardened our hearts and trained her to sleep in her own bed, in her own room. We learned to ignore her heart rending screams, and displays of lung power. My mother would sit and look at us reproachfully whenever she came to visit, but we were adamant. Spock had said so.

What to do with Yoda? After his first night with us, we decided that he was going to sleep in our bed. No banishing him to the outhouse, or even to the comfortable mattress that Mina had got for him. No Ferberizing him. No tests of will power to see who would cave in first. Yoda would find a place on our bed, and I would have to acquire a contortionist’s skills and muscle tone, to keep out of his way.

There is a great conspiracy among dog lovers. Everyone has this stiff upper lip about where the dog sleeps. No one will fess up immediately to the fact that the pooch has occupied the bed. We all fear that we will be thought of as wimps, or slightly unsanitary human beings. But press on, and the truth slips out. Yes, the dog sleeps in the bed. Sometimes a spouse objects, but is careful not to make it a deal breaker. Who wants the humiliation of being superseded by a dog?

I know a couple who every night to take a wet towel to their dog’s paws, his snout, and his underbelly, before he is allowed to come to bed with them. Not our Yoda though. Mina had read somewhere that dogs are actually much cleaner than human beings. That was enough to put an end to any hygiene discussion.

It took Mina and me a while to get used to the fact that we had a new person on the bed with us. I have woken up at nights with breath hot and heavy against my cheek, and to my disappointment discovered that it is his furry face. He usually starts off the night sleeping at our feet, and by the morning, he has moved his little torso onto one of our pillows. We have learned to make way for him. It is incredibly comforting to feel his body breathing gently against my head. Even his snoring is soothing - enough to put me straight into another REM cycle.

Yoda sees the world in black and white. Mina is the alpha dog in his life. I am not. So, if Mina is asleep, he will lie in bed, waiting patiently for her to wake up. ‘If Mommy is asleep, then everyone can sleep’. If she is up, and I am asleep, he gives me a few minutes, and then climbs on my chest and barks into my face. He slaps me on the cheeks, and scratches my forehead till I am fully awake. I am transported back to my boarding school days, with the prefect shaking me awake at 5.30 in the morning yelling ‘ Come on, it’s time for PE’.

He has his favorite night time rituals. His internal body clock tells him when it is 10.30 in the evening. He has decided that its time for us to retire. He comes and nudges us with his paw. ‘Night, night….it’s time to go to bed’. He is quite insistent, and will not be denied. He also wants to round up the flock. It is not enough if either Mina or I go to bed. We must all go, and he will not be satisfied till we have all packed up, and turned the lights off. He is quite the tyrant.

Yoda also slips into watchdog mode, anytime I am out of town. He sleeps at the corner of the bed, alert to every rustle and whisper, ears cocked, and face turned towards the door. He does not sleep a wink, as he stands guard over Mina. I get an ecstatic greeting on my return, mainly because he can now catch up on his sleep.

He is a great connoisseur of beds. He has five mattresses of his own, strewn in various parts of the house and office, and sleeps well in all of them. But he is very fussy with hotel beds. His favorite ones are the Sheraton sweet sleeper beds. The moment we check into the room, he demands to be placed on the bed, and we have to shake him awake when its time to go. It’s great to see Room Service people do a double take when they see him on the bed. They go up to him to play, and we have to cough and gently remind them to set out the tray for us.

But like us, Yoda sleeps best when he is at home. When we return from a trip, he has trained us to put him on the bed as soon as we back. For once, he is content to sleep even if we are busy unpacking or just pottering around. All’s well with the world and Yoda’s back on his own stomping ground.