Every home has its little dramas, and in Tina's house the drama is bed-shaped. There is one very comfortable NOOKI, and two dogs who each believe, with their whole heart, that it belongs to them.
The reigning champion is Steve, a French Bulldog whose single great talent is sleeping. Steve doesn't so much use the bed as move into it — head wedged onto the bolster like it was engineered as a personal pillow, eyes shut, powered down for the next several hours. He has reviewed the mattress thoroughly and reached a firm, final verdict: it is his, all of it, and he intends to defend the title in his sleep.
On the rare occasion Steve is awake and upright, don't be fooled — this is not a dog preparing to share. Tiny backpack on, chin up, he is simply surveying his kingdom before the next nap. Any suggestion that he might, just occasionally, scoot over is met with the deep and total silence of a dog who is very much not listening.
The signature move is the full-mattress sprawl: belly down, legs out, backpack still on, because getting comfortable is serious work and Steve is a serious professional. From this position he occupies roughly one hundred percent of the available surface area — which is, mathematically speaking, a bit of a problem for anyone else who fancies a lie-down.
Which brings us to Otis, the fluffy white gentleman of the household and the quiet hero of this story. Otis is shy, patient and impeccably polite — the sort of dog who would never dream of taking the whole bed. He simply waits nearby, hoping softly and radiating good manners in Steve's general direction. And he waits. And he waits some more. Somehow the timing never quite works out for Otis, and the bed stays, as ever, under management.