Even though technically, I am not suppose to sleep on Doc’s side of the bed, I find it is the best place to do my problem solving, philosophizing and planning. As Aristotle once said, ” The most important relationship we can have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self discovery.” I just choose to follow Aristotle’s advice in comfort, and since Doc would be outside for hours doing yard work, I had plenty of time to ponder the meaning of my life while lying on a soft pillow.

You might think it’s not very nice of me to lay in bed all day while Doc is out toiling in the flower beds, but someone in this family needs to preserve their energy. After all, I have a good view out the window into the yard and it is impressive watching her edge the flower beds and then haul around over 25 bags of mulch that she then spread all around. She is focused about getting a job done, I’ll give her that, but I did notice that she had to come in a take some breaks through out the day and she complained that she was getting sore. After all, she is no spring chicken and neither am I. That is why I leave her with the heavy lifting and I provide the verbal encouragement.

Doc caught me several times snoozing away, and I could tell she was not thrilled as she had just put clean sheets on the bed, but I think she was too tired to complain. When she was finally done gardening, and she let me outside, I was thrilled when I smelled the manure aroma of the mulch. After all, dogs philosophy is the stinkier the better.

When Doc went to take a shower, that’s when I got busy doing a little landscaping myself . However, she was not pleased when she came to the back porch, saw that the dirt and mulch under the pear tree had been dug up and I was now asleep in the new soft bed I had created. Exasperated with me she exclaimed in a tired and slightly agitated voice, “Grover, did you dig up all my hard work?” I thought to myself, who did she think did it, the next door neighbor? For a minute I thought about throwing him under the bus, but came up with a better response, so sheepishly I responded, ” I am on my journey of self-discovery, just like the great philosopher Aristotle suggested and I have discovered that sleeping in a bed of mulch and dirt is more comfortable than sleeping in your bed”. Boy did she give me “the look” when I said that.

I knew it was a lame excuse, but lucky for me she was too tired to respond, or to make me come in the house. So I stayed under the tree appreciating the relationship I had formed with myself through the day and then promptly fell sound asleep while dreaming about my purpose in the universe.