Sleeping Cats and Dogs

My family always had pet cats when I was growing up. Flash, Brownie, Shadow, Whiskers (can you tell we were given the privilege of naming them?) My sister and I would compete for the pleasure of a guest cat sleeping on our respective twin beds - enticing them with small, mouselike movements of our feet. As the cat would jump from one bed to the other, trying to see if there was really a mouse under the covers, we would get wilder and wilder in our competitive moves until the cat would become frightened and leave the room completely.

If I did happen to get a cat to settle in (kind of like hooking a fish), I'd try and move around it very carefully so it would stay - pulling first one leg up and then the other when I needed to roll over so the cat wouldn't be put upon to move. Sometimes, I'd sleep in a scrunched-up corner of the bed all night so there was plenty of cat room available, only to wake up to find their half of the bed empty. When I sat up, I'd see a small contented black shape in the middle of my sister's blankets. I'd been abandoned at some point of that needlessly uncomfortable night.

Now I have a dog that likes to sleep on the bed. A big, space-hogging, cover-immobilizing dog and, of course, I'm thrilled. I've tried and failed to get other dogs to sleep on a bed (one slight move and you lose 'em) so I was surprised by Honey's sleep agreeableness. But, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's a breed trait.



I don't have any real data to back that up - mainly a random sampling of pitbull owners who've told me it's true of their pit, too (For example, this shot of Marty's pillow pooch, Luca.)

But I think it could be a breed thing. I know (first and second hand) that miniature dachshunds are burrowers which translates into burrowing under the covers whenever possible. (Here's a picture of a friend's long-haired mini-dachshund, Claude, not really demonstrating that fact but he is so cute I thought I'd use it anyway.)

If burrowing is a breed trait for miniature dachshunds, it's not too much more of a leap to say that spooning is a breed trait for pit bulls, is it?

Other unscientific evidence:

1) In the article Choosing the Right Dog Bed for Your Pit Bull Terrier by Tim Amherst, he says, "Your Pit Bull will probably prefer sleeping with you... (And, just so you know, he does follow it with, "...but that's not always a good idea.")

2) This is the picture on the homepage of The Real Pit Bull. 'Nuff said there.



3) Doggie News, a dog news round-up that publishes some pretty entertaining happenings in dog world, posted this survey from Sealy that shows two out of three people sleep with their dog - at least sometimes. Okay, this isn't about pits in particular but - you know some of those have to be pitbulls, right? The survey also asked who's more disturbing to sleep? Well, "...overall 51% say it's their partner who's the disturbance, while 38% feel it's their pet." But, that's a whole other topic.

pitbull, pit bull