Chapter 35 – Fit For A Lady

God of Peaceful Sweet Sleep

Psalm 3:5

“I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.”

Psalm 4:8

“I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.”

Proverbs 3:24

“When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.”

Kaiyah, as most living things, enjoyed having her own space just like our sweet cockatiel Cotton in his Home Cage. That space needed to be a safe zone. We designated one of the rooms not often used to be just that for her. A room she knew could be where she could go if she wanted to sleep, hide, or just hang out in. To the best of my ability I tried to make sure that space was there from the time of her rescue and it continued right along with special bedding to help comfort her. The bedding took different forms and thicknesses but she always had her favorites.

When we moved to an area with more cold and snow it was even more important to ensure warmth for our pets but without using the heater too much. One day I was thinking about it and remembered we had a huge box from the move and the custom lid seemed just right to be a “bed frame”. It was cardboard, which holds heat well, and it was sturdy. I decided to give it a try. I put her favorite cozies in there all fluffed, and then got a few of her favorite bonies and began the introduction. At first she thought I was totally loony. I remember her staring at me with that, “What in the world?” face.

All of a sudden Kaiyah ran around the room, hopped up and down like a happy calf or colt - and then ran friskity through the house and came back to me in her room space, and landed square in the bed - and then hopped out right next to me sitting pretty as you please. “What a game!!” she must have thought as she playfully looked at me waiting for the next round, and there were many. Eventually, from sheer exhaustion she plopped in, right after she heard me lively say again, “Kaiyah’s bed.” The size was perfect for her. I immediately praised her and provided her the much worked for rewards. She glanced at me with that, “I knew that was my new bed but I wanted to play… a lot!” After I petted her for a while I got up to leave the room and she instantly followed me out. And I chased her all over the house until she ran right back to her new cozy bed set-up and flumped right in it. She looked so proud and happy; I had to give her an extra boney for good measure.

She liked her happy safe snuggle space and that made us happy. Inadvertently we discovered Pumpkin also enjoyed Kaiyah’s snuggle space as often as he could. But that wasn’t too big of a surprise as he loved Kaiyah and he really liked to cuddle inside of handbags and boxes. Over time I had considered the idea of making or buying one that would be more durable. Such an opportunity came when Peter’s family had come for a visit. I knew from previous conversations that Peter’s dad, who was in retirement, had a good way with hands-on projects and had done some wood work in times past. I knew if he chose to do it that it would be done right. I decided to ask him if he might be interested in the special little project to make a wooden frame for Kaiyah’s bed. I gave him measurements that matched her current happy box place and provided a few necessary details and he politely said he would think about it...

As time ticked along not a word was said about it and I let it be. Kaiyah was still enjoying her box frame and although a little more age worn, it was still holding just fine. A family visit was planned and upon their arrival they announced that they had something special for Kaiyah. To our astonishment they had with them a heavy duty deluxe wooden box frame! As we brought it in you couldn’t help but notice the weight, the sturdiness and how smoothly sanded every wooden piece was in handling it. It was solid! Kaiyah saw it and didn’t know what to make of it at first. It had a beautiful pine smell and you could tell there was a lot of care put into it.