BUDDY BEDS: THE UTMOST IN COMFORT FOR SPOILED DOGS EVERYWHERE

I know I write a lot about Bobo (aka Lady Shirlington aka Paddles Pendleton aka “the crazy dog”) but this week it’s all about Zac (aka Lord Shirlington aka Bunny aka Benedict Bunny McFadden Von Pantz the 3rd). Zac is older and much more distinguished than Bobo could ever hope to be. He is gray around the muzzle, is beginning to get “old man bumps” on his eyelids and body, and is (often) the fun police at the dog park, assuring that no other canines have any sort of romping, joyous entertainment without eliciting at least a single series of barks.

Zac is a very attractive gentleman, rather tall for his breed and somehow manages to catch the eye of many passers by. Children love him, adults love him, other dogs sometimes love him and we really love him. He deserves respect and he demands it every chance he gets. He’s completely spoiled but he is also 11 so that in itself gives him permission to be a little more demanding. He spends most of the day sleeping on our Sleep Number Bed and unfortunately most of the night as well. We even know which number he likes. (He will always pick the 35 side.) And this is where the story really starts.

We bought a king sized bed because it was a little tight in a queen sized with 2 large dogs and 3 cats. We figured that if we had a larger bed, there would be plenty of room for all of us. We didn’t consider the fact that animals are like sponges. They reliably expand when given the opportunity to do so. Our king sized bed rapidly became too small and we now joke that we’ll buy another twin to put next to it to make it just that much bigger. We haven’t done that yet, but we did go the next best route.

Zac is older, we don’t say he’s old, but he is definitely older. He’s not quite as spry as he was in his youth, he doesn’t bounce back quite as quickly when he overdoes it, and he’s a little creaky when moves from lying down to standing. We don’t begrudge him loving the Sleep Number, we completely understand why. The problem is that he lies in the middle of the bed and sticks his legs out to assure that he possesses the greatest amount of space possible. This is a very interesting phenomenon considering when he sleeps on the couch or a chair or even in his own bed (which he will only occupy between the hours of 9 am and 6 pm), he takes up about as much real estate as one of the cats. That is, not a lot. So it’s interesting really that he expands so much in our bed.

In his defense, his bed is a little beat up, so it’s understandable that it’s not his first choice of sleeping locations. His sister Bobo (aka Lady Shirlington) had in the past made it her personal mission to remove all of the stuffing from it. We are therefore forever restuffing it, so it’s a little lumpy. We knew we were going to have to buy him a new bed eventually, but which one to choose…

We figured since he was getting older and liked our bed so much, we would do what we could to replicate it. Since they don’t make Sleep Numbers for dogs (yet), that wasn’t an option. What we do have however, is a Tempur-Pedic, memory foam mattress pad, and they do make memory foam dog beds. There are several companies that make these illustrious beds, but we decided to go with the Buddy Beds because they seem to be the most popular and received rave reviews.

Buddy Beds are made of 2” of 5 lb memory foam with 3” of supporting foam underneath. They are waterproof and anti-bacterial and anti-dust mite. They are not however chew proof, and they are rather expensive. $299 for a large one. So this was a pretty major decision as we did not want to spend $300 + dollars (don’t forget the shipping costs), only to have Bobo annihilate it within minutes. We decided to take the chance because Bobo has aged a bit and gotten much better about not eating things that don’t belong to her. She still has her moments with socks every now and again, but she doesn’t go for anything larger than that anymore.

All the reviews written by satisfied customers claimed that their dog slept through the night in their new bed immediately or almost immediately. We figured Zac need some time to acclimate to his new digs, but that he’d realize eventually that his Buddy Bed was a good thing. He took to it immediately and spent his days between the hours of 9 am and 6 pm happily sleeping in it. But come bedtime, there he was back with us. We thought our biggest problem with getting Zac to sleep in his own bed was the quality of the bed. But we soon learned otherwise. Zac likes having a back edge on his beds so he can lean against it. Buddy Beds don’t have those. To remedy that situation, we stuffed pillows between his bed and the night stand so he would have something to lean against. It didn’t work. Apparently Buddy Beds can’t beat our Sleep Number.

But then we had to move temporarily for work and live in an apartment with a queen sized bed. Since all of the animal accompaniments at night can really disrupt sleep patterns, in a smaller bed, this certainly would not do. Disrupted sleep would definitely not be good when we needed to be smart. So when we moved, we insisted that Zac sleep in his own bed and kicked him off of ours when he ventured up before 5 am. Unbelievably, he took to it like a Zac to Sleep Number. He now sleeps happily though the night on his very own large memory foam tuffet. He still comes into the big bed in the mornings, but that’s part of the fun of having a dog isn’t it? Isn’t it?