Yoda’s Sugar Dust Has Earned Him a New Bed

Yoda has sugar dust. At least that’s what a sweet southern woman down the street told us in her lazy drawl last year when we were talking with her in her driveway during a pause in our afternoon walk. Not wanting to admit that Yoda’s muzzle has been getting more and more gray, I immediately embraced the term. Sugar dust sounds so endearing and playful – almost like Yoda has been caught sneaking a bite out of a powdered donut.

Yoda’s sugar dust has brought with it other things. Our walks are slower these days and involve more leisurely sniffing than distance. His hearing isn’t as good as it used to be, which is actually kinda nice because he often doesn’t react with a flurry of barking and lunging when noisy motorcycles go by. I’ve added Glucosamine and other supplements to his diet to help ward off any stiffness that inevitably comes with age. Every once in awhile when it is time to jump into the car, he’ll pause and shoot me a look that I know means “Will you please lift me today? I’m a little stiff and could use the boost.”

He also naps a lot. He breaks up the day by often switching napping locations: on the sofa, on his bed, on the deck, on my bed, on the guest bedroom bed, and on the landing half way down the stairs where he can lay in the sun and stare out of a giant picture window to watch the squirrels playing in the trees. Don’t get me wrong, he also still has many bursts of puppy-like playfulness. He’ll awake from his naps with a spurt of energy and want to play tug with his rope or will madly shake one of his stuffed toys around.

I’m hopeful he has many years ahead of him, and with that thought I want to make his sugar dust years as comfortable as possible. He’s earned it after all the miles he’s logged napping without complaint somewhat uncomfortably in the back of Princess Leia the Prius. One idea lodged in my head about a year ago that I haven’t been able to shake. I wanted to buy Yoda the crowned jewel of dog beds: a TempurPedic dog bed. But with its hefty price tag (including shipping) of $377.79, I kept putting it off. After all, that’s about $20 more than I paid for my generic king-sized memory foam mattress, and it took awhile to process that Yoda’s bed would be more expensive than mine. Finally, on Valentine’s Day, I bit the bullet and ordered one. It took a long time to receive (sidenote, if you order one, order directly from Orvis, as you’ll get it a lot faster than if you order from Tempurpedic, as they have to wait to receive it from Orvis before they ship it out). From the minute it arrived, I’ve been hard pressed to get Yoda out of it.

He still moves from place to place during the day to nap, but he spends more quality napping time in the new bed than in any other place in the house. It’s a nice feeling to have absolutely zero regrets about my big splurge on Yoda. In fact, he’s laying in his new bed right now. He just opened one eye to look at me over his sugar-dusted snout before he let out a loud happy sigh and fell contentedly into the latest nap of the day.

 

 

 

Tagged as: dog bed, gray muzzle, Orvis, sugar dust, tempurpedic dog bed, Yoda