The Explanation Behind My Native American Name

 

Sometime last year the gang and I were at the Mexican restaurant and somehow we started talking about Dancing With Wolves.  Therefore we started giving each other Native American names.  For instance, "Much Loves Chicken" is Terri's name because her favorite place in the world is ChikFilA.  Janice is "Sister Hair Not Golden Enough" because she once said she needed to get her hair highlighted because it wasn't blonde enough...sigh.  Anyway, my Native American name is "Sleeps With Dogs."  

 

It all started with our first Chihuahua, Presley.  That's him below.  We got him about 13 years ago and he lived to be 10.  I didn't want a dog in the house, but David won out.  When we picked him up at the breeder, he weighed a pound and a half.  I really have never seen David so excited.  He was just on the moon about him.  When we got in the truck I was holding him and he crawled behind my neck and stayed there until we got home.

 

I fell instantly in love.  Presley eventually owned us, we didn't own him.  We lived in his house, sat on his furniture and slept in his bed.
The first night I made him a little snuggy bug bed and put it in the living room under the heater.  I put him in there and went to bed.  He may have stayed there 2 minutes.  I couldn't stand it.  I got the box and put it on the floor next to my side of the bed.  He may have stayed there 30 seconds.  It was too cold down there, he was away from his Mama from the first time etc.
But where was he going to sleep?  He was so little.  If I put him above my head next to the head board he would fall through.  He couldn't sleep between David and I, David would squish him when he turned over. (David is a flopper)  So, I put him in the crook of my arm and that is where he slept for months until he got a little bigger and began to sleep under the covers at our feet.  But he always started out sleeping in the crook of my arm.  After about an hour or so, he would make his way to the foot of the bed.  And in his later years, if we disturbed him, he would nip our toes.  I didn't care, I loved him too much.
When it was time to go to bed, I would ask him if he was ready to go night night puppy and if he snorted and wagged his tail, I would pick him up and off to bed we would go.  But if he growled at me, I knew he wasn't ready.  When he was ready to get in the bed with me, he would come to my side of the bed and snort and yip at me until I picked him up.  But here is the kicker.  He would rarely let me lean over pick him up.  I had to get up, follow him into the hall and pick him up.  Sometimes I would make him snort and bark for several minutes, but I always gave in.  I bought him stairs to get up in the bed, but he absolutely would not use them.
Presley spent his last night on the earth sleeping on my chest right over my heart....he had started to have seizures and probably had a stroke.  David called the vet at 4 AM, he met us at his office and put him to sleep while I held him in my arms.
David said, no more dogs.  I said oh no...I have to have a puppy dog.  So several months later we got Priscilla-or CiCi the blond in the second picture above.  She too was a fuzz ball that weighed about 2 pounds.
I made her a snuggy bug at the top of my head.  I put a pillow up there and rolled up a small blanket around it so that she wouldn't fall off the bed.  I also nestled her in the crook of my arm.  To this day she loves to sleep either at the top of my head or in the crook of my arm.  She usually gets in the bed and crawls to the top of the pillow and wraps herself around my head.
We got Ginger-GinGin about a year and a half after we got Priscilla.  (1st picture) Where was she going to sleep?  CiCi was sleeping on the top of my head...so I put GinGin who was 6 months old and weighed about 3 pounds, on my left shoulder.
So there I was in bed with David who was surrounded by his pillows,me flat on my back with my head up on 3 to 4 pillows because I have reflux, CiCi on top of my head and Ginger on my left shoulder.   And I was happy.
Now that they are bigger, they still start the night with CiCi at my head and GinGin on my left shoulder, and usually end up cuddled up one on one side of me and one on the other.
My friends know this...thus "Sleeps With Dogs."