I’ve mentioned before that I get migraines.  The kind that try to kill me, I’m useless for 36 hours, head and stomach in agony, and sometimes have to go to the ER.  Many people have asked how I manage the dogs on those days.

Sometimes, I have help.  On the days I don’t, well, I do what mothers of humans do, I get up (even when I’m sure that I can’t), I make it downstairs (it ain’t pretty) and I get the dogs out and fed.  With a 36 hour migraine, this often has to happen 3-4 times. I will say, on those days, I curse the day I moved the dogs over to a raw diet.

The boys, well they are crazy good on migraine days. Even better than they are on normal days. To be honest, I think they like migraines. I say the words ‘mama doesn’t feel good’ and they assume the position. They can go much longer without potty breaks and they really champion the sleep time.

Of course anyone who has shared a bed with dogs knows that they must be up on you at all times, and sometimes you are pushed out of the bed during one of their sideways stretches. Since migraine days mean extreme nausea for me, I had to come up with a solution that said ‘it’s snuggle time’ but also ‘I need you to stay over there’.  So I got their bolster beds, the ones that have a pillow insert and I took the pillow part out and put the bolster part on the bed. This way they are on the bed but there is a barrier to me. (I also used to do this with my sister using duct tape.  Only back then, if she crossed the barrier, I’d go tell on her).  I thought I’d have to train them to stay in, but they got it right away.

Here they are demonstrating:

It worked so well that sometimes I use it on normal nights to keep Melvin on a section of the bed, not occupying the entire thing!