Percy is, overall, an excellent nurse-puppy. He sleeps near me as I spend long days on the couch, prone, post-bike accident. Begrudgingly prone for me, not him. Percy is happily prone.
Our one struggle is over The Good Blanket. There’s a blanket that Percy, Beau and I all agree is the best blanket. We have many blankets in this house. About 102. The Good Blanket was inherited from Beau’s mom, Cynthia. It’s teal and soft and just the right size.
Whenever I get up off the couch to walk a bit, and I do that at least every hour because my watch commands it, Percy unobtrusively moves to The Good Blanket. He does it when no one is looking. Beau found another blanket, the same color—as if color is the main criterion for Percy. Or for me. Or for anyone. The Not As Good Blanket is on the couch right next to The Good Blanket so that Percy can be near me.
When I return to the couch to assume my begrudgingly prone position, I gently and respectfully ask Percy to move to the Not As Good Blanket. It’s the same color, as I have mentioned. It’s not as soft. It’s a little too small to cover my 5’11” body. It probably doesn’t smell as good, but I don’t really know. I suspect, though.
There’s a story behind The Not As Good Blanket, too. It was given to someone at work I didn’t like all that much. She'd received it from a vendor, didn't want to take it home on the plane with her, and offered it to me. I accepted her gift and put it in the bottom drawer of my file cabinet, my siege drawer, next to my twelve cans of tuna. The people in my group at work knew that if we were under siege, my office was the place to come to, because I had a blanket and twelve cans of tuna. One of the other people in my group had a can opener. We would be okay.
When the pandemic hit, I brought the blanket home. We didn’t need another blanket at home, since we already had 101. But still. You never know. I brought the twelve cans of tuna home too.
Once when I was mad at Beau, and he was a little too cold (thermally) in bed, I got up and went downstairs and got The Good Blanket, even though we had many other blankets right there in a blanket chest in our room. But since I was mad at him, I decided to get The Good Blanket to show that, even though I was mad, I still cared a lot.
Anyway, back to the present. After Percy gave me a look of extremely mild reproach, he moved to the Not As Good Blanket, and pretended to settle in. Several minutes later I noticed his head and front paws had moved onto The Good Blanket. No one had seen him do this. I know what’s coming.
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