I don’t know quite how it happened that Lenore got her own couch. She is one of those genial loving creatures – there are many Labs like this – who simply insinuate themselves into your life. Lenore is the only dog I have ever owned who sleeps on the bed with us at night, she starts out with her own corner, tightly curled up in a ball, somehow when we wake up she is stretched out like a lion, leaning snugly into one or the other of us.

This couch was purchased for the first Bedlam Farm, it is a pull-out, I used to sit on it when I was freaking out obsessively calling my sister and other people to try and calm myself. I read on this couch, first talked with Maria on this couch, at some point Lenore hopped up on one side and used it to nap. We put a sheet on it to protect it from dog hair, and began referring to it as “Lenore’s Couch.” When we moved to the new farm, we asked each other where “Lenore’s Couch” ought to go and I volunteered my study, Lenore likes to hang around me when I work. It grounds me to see her and hear her snoring.

No one else uses the couch any longer, I never sit on it, visitors sleep upstairs in the guest room, the other dogs don’t ever go near it. It is Lenore’s Couch now, where she often is when she is in the house. Animals share our lives, they can sometimes take them over, dogs do not really need their own couch. But I am happy to see here there, I smile every time I turn around and look at her, and she thumps her tail enthusiastically, cheering me on, telling me I am loved, as she has always done.

Lenore kept love alive for me when I so desperately needed it, it is only fitting she has her own couch.