Stairway to Heaven

Sasha is not a stupid dog, and Mark is not a stupid man. Together however, they have created stupid. Our new bed is much higher than the old one. It is just an inch or so too high for Sasha to easily jump up there. Instead she stands next to the bed, giving me big brown goo, goo eyes, waiting for me to lift her up there. So I suggested to Mark that he find a small hassock on one of his shopping safaris, that we could put next to the bed. It was something that I knew Sasha would be able to navigate. She could hop up on the hassock, and then hop the rest of the way onto the bed. Yesterday Mark came home with a large box. Inside was a set of 'doggy stairs', carpeted for ease of traction. Sasha is basically a watermelon with fur and little stick legs. She is not built for steep, shallow stairs. Mark proudly pulled the set of stairs out of the box, and set them next to the bed. He then lay on the bed and called for Sasha to come on up. Instead of scrambling up the stairs, she looked at them as if they were a brick wall, and then looked over to me with her goo, goo eyes. So I picked her up, put two feet on one stair, two feet on the next one, and gave her a little nudge towards the top. Nothing, she just stood there frozen in place.

It would have been so simple if Mark had done what I asked. Buy a small hassock, and be done with it. No, now I have to teach this nine year old, stiff legged dog, how to climb stairs. Or, I could just throw a piece of meat on the bed every time she wants to get up there. I discovered she could actually fly this morning when Mark was eating breakfast in bed.