the case of the broken heater

It’s been cold inside and out around here lately.  Mom’s been putting our sweaters on us inside the house and that’s fine with me but driving Dorothy crazy.  Dorothy hates clothes and needs to be supervised when wearing them because she’ll chew them apart as soon as mom looks away so just before we go to sleep: mommy takes her sweater off her, wraps her in a blanket and puts her in her pen for the night.  

I don’t have to worry about any of this, I have the special kind of hair that doesn’t shed and cause daddy allergies so I’m allowed on the bed and under the covers when I get cold.  Dorothy’s hair gets all over everything so she’s never been allowed on the bed which is bad news when it’s this cold.

How I sleep

How Dorothy sleeps

Mommy says it’s cold because the heater is broken and we have to wait for a new motor to be delivered to the man who will fix it and daddy doesn’t want to risk lighting the fireplace which is more than ok with Dorothy and I because as we found out on our last trip away: we HATE fire. 

Most of the time I love that I’m up on the bed and Dorothy isn’t.  I usually lay on the very edge beside her pen and tease her by rolling all around and kicking the covers about while she looks up at me with sad eyes.  Last night though, I felt sorry for her when she woke up mommy and me by crying because her blanket had come off and she was cold.  Mommy and I both got out of bed and sat with her - mommy holding her and me just sitting beside them, occasionally sniffing Dorothy until she warmed up and fell asleep.  Then mommy tucked her back in, put a thick blanket over the pen and go back into bed. 

I felt so guilty about her being in there that stayed sitting beside Dorothy’s pen for a little while, despite the cold, wanting make sure she was ok.  She was unusually still, so I got up close to the bars to make sure she was breathing.  She gave me a quick nod which told me she was fine – she just didn’t want the blanket to come off again so I hopped back in bed beside mom and eventually fell into an uneasy asleep.  I hope the man comes to fix our heater soon!  It doesn’t feel right to show my sister just how much I care for her.