Dear Readers,

Lately I have been feeling warm at night so I jump off our (kinda high) bed to the coolish wood floor for little breaks. The other night when trying to jump back up, I didn’t make it and fell back onto the area rug surrounding our bed. Just that once. And I was tired and groggy. Even so, Momma was alarmed and decided to buy some type of equipment that would help me scoot up into bed (and walk down if for some odd reason I couldn’t jump). I was not excited about this little “aid.” Didn’t Momma remember that I am an acclaimed agility blue ribbon champ?

Although I really didn’t think I needed help at all, Momma was on mission. She measured the height of the bed (28”) and because she could not find a set of stairs that tall, considered buying a ramp instead. Would I be able to make that final leap of 8”- 10” to the top of the bed in the middle of the night or would a ramp be easier? What if the ramp was too narrow and I fell off? Would she need to determine the square footage of each? Did she need to apply the Pythagorean theory to make her decision? Just kidding — Momma doesn’t know what that is.

After carefully weighing the options and considering the pros and cons and every possible danger posed by each, Momma bought a sort of lumpy set of steps, so rounded and soft it was difficult to tell where they started and ended. Here I am with the dreaded stairs.

Momma was so concerned about another failed jump attempt in the middle of the night. though, that she decided we must have some training so I would actually use the stairs. She even invited her friend, Barb’s grandchildren —Ethan, Benjamin and Dorothy — to help out. Aren’t they cute?

The kids were great — first we played for a bit and I showed them my large repertoire of tricks. When we turned to the stairs training, they were patient and encouraging and gave me plenty of treats. I loved those kiddos so much that I finally gave in and learned to do the stairs. Here’s a little bit of the action.

Imagine Momma’s surprise when she called me in to go to bed last night and I marched right up those steps. Now I would be safe after all! Thank you to my new special friends!

Lina, Stepping high!

Woofda!