Ella's Bed

A little background for this post. When Alex and I got Charlie we made a big deal out of not letting him on the couch unless he was invited. Then Ella came along and for some reason we didn't make as big a deal out of it (the younger sibling always gets off easy, or so Olivia tells me). If she's on the couch and you want it, she'll immediately get down, but if there's room on the couch she doesn't need an invitation to fill it up. She sort of thinks of it as her bed. I know for a fact that she sleeps there every night because of the hair and dust she leaves behind. It's not a big deal because we have covered the couch with sheets, so she's not getting the actual couch dirty. Charlie is a little more reserved about it--he only does it during the day when we're gone and will only join us on the couch if we really convince him. Anyway, the dogs aren't allowed on the bed without invitation either. Unlike the couch, this rule actually still gets enforced. BUT, Ella and I also have this little routine we do every night around bedtime. Since I usually hit the sack before Alex, I invite Ella onto the bed for 5 minutes before Alex kicks her out. She loves it and feels very special.

So last night, I was laying on the couch watching the Olympics. Eventually I started to fall asleep I decided to go to bed. When I went in the bedroom, who should be all curled up on the bed but Ella. She had obviously wanted to lie on the couch but found it otherwise occupied by me. So, instead of laying on the cold, hard floor she just skipped ahead to the part of the evening where I go to bed and she gets invited to come with me. She was very cute and as I'm sure you all know, it's really hard to discipline dogs when they're being adorable. So I let her stay. I thought she might move when I started to make the bed but she didn't. She just let me make the bed over her and then went right back to sleep. What a spoiled dog we have. I'm very curious to see what she decides to do tonight...