Sammy Story 5: Safe places

Sammy needed a safe place. In his last home, it was his kennel, where he had his bed and his two favourite, miserable-looking “bunnies.” M told us that he would stay in his kennel in her office where he could be near her when she worked. She said she was hoping he could go to a family and at least feel safe enough not to have to live in his kennel for the rest of his life.

So, we put the kennel in our bedroom, along with another of his little beds beside it, in case he wanted to venture out.

There are three floors in our house where we mostly hang out. The top is our bedroom over the garage, then there is the main floor with kitchen and living room, and finally the “great room” downstairs where we watch TV. Since Sammy was shadowing me everywhere, and we quickly realized that lugging the kennel up and down stairs all day, was not going to happen, I put a large blanket-lined basket beside my chair on the main floor, and another one beside us in the TV room. Over a few days, his safety protocol settled into a predictable routine. At night he would go into his kennel, with the door open, but he would switch sometime in the night to his bed, which was nearer to me. If The Ogre got up before me, he would dive back into the kennel, shaking and shivering.

If I was downstairs having my coffee, sitting in my living room chair, he was quite happy to curl up in the basket beside me. But downstairs was a different matter. He did not want to stay in the bed beside me. Immediately, as I reclined, he paced in tight little circles around and around, not settling, till finally, in one giant leap of faith, landed up on my lap! After that, it was automatic.

Whenever we went downstairs, he took it as his right to hop up onto my recliner. Even without me in it! It was a bit of a kerfuffle getting him out of it so I could sit down first! He didn’t want to leave it. Even when I tried to ease myself down with him still in it, hoping to get him to move, he wouldn’t budge. I truly believe he would let himself get squished first.

But after a few days of picking him up, putting him on the floor, sitting down and reclining, he got the idea of when his cue to hop up came. One of the first times we tried this, he hopped up into Dad’s chair by mistake! What a look of panic!

Oh no! Jump down fast as you can!

He always settled beside me on left, and I’m sure he was saying, “You’re too fat mom, I’m squished.”

I had to move over for the dog. Sheesh!