Sleeping at low levels

Holly and the cats have always been free to choose where they sleep. There are several dog beds scattered throughout the house plus a few cat beds, sleeping mats and blankets. It does vary a little depending on the temperature but Holly usually sleeps on the bed next to me.

As her awareness of where her back legs were reduced I worried about that she would roll over in the night, fall off the bed and injure herself.

I am not sure exactly when but at some point early in 2013 I decided that to save me sleeping with half an ear open for what Holly was doing, the most sensible solution was to get rid of the bed. The base was dismantled and stored in the spare room and the mattress placed on the floor. Now I could sleep soundly again in the knowledge that even if she did roll off the furthest she would fall was around 6 inches.

It took a little bit of getting used to. The alarm clock was still on the bedside table now a couple of feet above my head and if I was half asleep and swung my legs out of bed I would bash my feet and ankles on the floor.

The biggest danger however is from the cats. They play rough and at high speed. Now that the bed is on the floor they just run over it at full tilt rather than go round or slow down as they jump up. After one deep scratch caused by one of them using claws on my scalp to gain traction (resulting in a few choice words from me) I keep their nails clipped, they are indoor cats so don't need them for self-defence.

The folks at work are used to my animal induced injuries but i try to keep them to a minimum. I've had a black eye from Holly's skull hitting the bridge of my nose at high speed when she bounced a bit too enthusiastically in anticipation of a walk at the precise moment I bent down to tie my shoe laces and several scratches from the cats the most embarrassing of which ran diagonally across my face. I got a few funny looks from people on the bus, but not as many as I got in the few days after walking through wet bracken and stirring up a cloud of carnivorous midges. On that occasion I looked like I had some really contagious disease and nobody would sit next to me, so there was some small silver lining to the seriously itchy bites.