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May 8, 2009

Lee Ward : New couch, new rules — 05/10/09

Anonymous The Daily Independent Fri May 08, 2009, 12:04 PM EDT

For years, I had a couch that I paid $20 for — I bought it from my next-door neighbor who wanted to get rid of it.

I figured that was good enough for me; my husband was always sitting at his desk and dogs would be sharing the couch with me, so how fancy did it need to be?

The cushions never fit very well, there was a slash on the side underneath the right arm and there were questionable springs throughout.

However, the used couch was good enough. Until recently.

After wrestling with the cushions for five minutes, trying to find a way to lie down for a couch nap (which is my favorite kind of nap), only to get jabbed in the nether regions with a faulty spring, I knew it was time for new furniture.

I’m a pretty good shopper. Even if I don’t know what I want when I set out on my quest, I know what I want when I see it. I do tend to brag about what I pay for various items. I don’t mean brag at how expensive my stuff is; I mean brag about how much a got for a small price (as in, “Check out these pants; they were only $2 at a yard sale down the street.”)

So shopping for a new couch was simple. In less than an hour, I found a couch I liked at a very inexpensive price. It wasn’t $20, but it was cheap. I also got a chaise that coordinates with it because my previous chair also had been abused by the dogs and was breaking down structurally.

One of my goals for my new furniture was to avoid canine abuse. That is, avoid letting the canines abuse it. This meant keeping them off the furniture, which would be a strange and incomprehensible notion to them.

But now, I have only three dogs, as opposed to the six we kept when my husband was living. My current three are smaller dogs than we have had, too, so preserving my new furniture seemed doable.

When the two pieces were delivered, they were covered in heavy plastic. This buffaloed my dogs. They would run up to the couch as though they were going to jump up, but stopped short and stared at it.

This gave me the idea to leave the plastic on to deter them, and maybe eventually I could take it off and they would continue to stay off.

My new favorite thing to do is slip the plastic off the chaise and stretch out, covered with a plush, dark brown blanket. Last night, I got off the chaise for a few minutes and got busy doing chores. It took me several minutes to notice that Manny had taken my spot on the chaise. He looked so comfortable I hated to make him move, so I let him stay. At least the blanket was between him and my new chair.

LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.

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Lee Ward : New couch, new rules — 05/10/09

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