Monday is menosukhi day - the one in which I go all sentimental. For a while this means you are sharing my memories of two darling creatures, Jade Dog MacWoof and Jasper Cat MacMeow.

Well now, I said last week there were not too many stories of the J's left - but that means there are still some!  Mostly it just requires my remembering them .  I was helped in this one by Kay's comments on last week's entry.

It involved the matter of bedtime.  I am sure all my pet-loving blog-mates are familiar with their pets' bedtime behaviours and they are generally as individual as the owners.  What I loved about the J's was that they appeared to have an arrangement, some secret signal, about who would go and settle first in the appointed place, paving the way for the second to come curl up.

Yes they usually slept together.  Not always.  But mostly.  Neither was it always the same one who sent the signal. 

If it was Jasper's turn, he would go through that elaborate yawning and tail stretching that cats can do.  Then he'd sit for a bit, pondering the size of the atom before him.  This would be followed by a wink in Jade's direction and off he'd go - either to the low divan or over by the fire.  The season dictated that matter!

When it was Jade's turn to 'make bed', mostly she would just go over to where Jasper was at the time, sniff him all over and maybe lick his ears or occasionally I would see a little 'chuck' under the chin from her nose.  Then she'd go to the place of rest and turn in circles and paw the 'mattress' as dogs are wont to do before settling and looking over to see if he was coming to join.

They both, of course, got to sleep in my room overnight.  It's a given, really.  It also goes without saying that, on that queen size bed, I was the one usually hanging onto the edge so as not to fall out!! 

Jasper loved to sleep down by my tummy - and in the winter, if he could get away with it, that meant UNDER the duvet!  He had the great good sense to only do this when I was dead to the world.  I'd wake at whatever hour and think "It's cosy in here"…. Tsk.  Jade knew better than to try getting under but she always wanted to be as close as she could possibly get - and that meant really, really close.  You've seen it with puppies.  One on top of the other.  Completely natural for dogs.  A wee tad confining for humans.  (But man didn't  I miss that when she died!)

There would be times, such as parents of young children may be familiar, when all would go quiet and still and one would be wondering what was going on… on one or two occasions it was this…..

  

Or when they got really cheeky, this....

Yes, I DID make the bed - which one of them had managed to pull the covers back I have no idea!!

On other occasions, the quiet was because of other mischief - but that's for another post.

What was nice for me is that I knew they had each other on the occasional nights I had to stay at a friend's or go to camp.  I could just say to the neighbour what the food ration was for the weekend, but that otherwise they were just to be left to it.  'Uncle' neighbour was perfectly happy having his cuppa and throwing the toy for Jade for half an hour to make sure she got some running exercise and that Jasper got his shoulder cuddles for the day and I'd come back to happy pets who, nevertheless, were super glad to see me return.

They never liked to see me packing of course.  But that too is for another time.

Do pay BOZO a visit and pop over to see what news is in the Canine Chronicles this week!