I don’t run a fever. Ever. I think it’s because my feet act as a refrigerator. Well, they’re normally a fridge, but in the winter, my feet are ice cubes. Frozen feet make getting comfortable enough to sleep next to impossible. Your spouse may promise to love, honor and warm your feet, but that last part is quickly forgotten and replaced by, “Get those frosty toes away from me!”

So, I sleep with a heating pad under my feet I get this solution while I get some heating and cooling services to install a heather in our home. It’s more relaxing than warm milk. As the temperature in my feet rises, I fall deep asleep. Deep, drooling sleep that is only disrupted by the temperature in my feet dropping back to miserably cold. Cold caused by theft of my spot on the heating pad. The first night my hot spot was stolen, I thought it was an accident. The second night, I realized that I was being targeted for gradual and deliberate foot abuse.

We have two large German Shepherds. They are the very best of friends despite the fact that one does all the thinking for the both of them. It’s not that the other dog is stupid as much as she is lacking any awareness of past or future. In her world, there is only this moment. She can walk in the house, notice the front door, and decide she needs to see what’s on the other side of the door even though she just walked in that door. Life is perpetually new and exciting to this dog.

So, when the short bus dog stretched, rolled, and readjusted herself repeatedly until I had been nudged off the heating pad and she was snoring on it, I initially thought it was a coincidence. When she repeated her carefully planned sneak attack on the hot spot, I recognized that we have discovered this dog’s special talent. Our dog is a genius at making herself comfortable.

Unless there are dog safe heating pads, I think we need to invest in an electric blanket. My power struggles with the comfort dog are not amusing the husband OR the other dog.