Mariesa and Chris Hughes have a bedtime routine with their seven rescue dogs — and, frankly, Mariesa sounds like she could use a nap while describing it.
Gremlin and Money both sleep between the humans. Sam (another Pit Bull) gets under the covers at the foot of the bed.
Then Stig “paws at at me until I lift the covers and let him in,” Mariesa tells BarkPost. “He likes two spots. He starts under the covers between my legs, when he gets too hot, he comes up to the side of me and lets me spoon his butt and sticks his little head out of the side.”
Meatball sleeps curled up with Chris, “and Quinn will go absolutely wherever he can except he doesn’t like to cuddle for long.”
According to Mariesa, the only really good dog is Tejas (the other Greyhound). “He always sleeps on a chair or dog bed,” she says.
“They all love to sleep on the bed with us but our sleep has really suffered lately,” says Chris.
“Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to try to steal a corner of my pillow back from Gremlin,” adds Mariesa. “I need my beauty rest!”
Chris and Mariesa, who live in upstate New York, are founders of the Mr. Mo Project — a nonprofit that gets old and sick dogs out of shelters where they face a high risk of euthanasia. The dogs are placed in loving foster homes for the rest of their lives, with all their medical expenses paid for.
In the last year-and-a-half since the Mr. Mo Project got off the ground, they’ve saved about 100 dogs. Chris and Mariesa have sold their own belongings when donations haven’t covered these dogs’ costs.
In other words. these guys are the ultimate dog lovers, so conscientious about their dogs’ happiness they even made sure that the windows in their house are low enough for the pooches to look out of.
“They do love to window watch,” says Chris. “We think about our pets with most things we do.”
So it’s no surprise that when the couple set out to salvage their sleep, the seemingly simple idea of just kicking their furry crew out of bed was not a real option.
“I don’t think I could sleep without them. If I am ever out of town I don’t sleep well without them,” says Chris.
As The Dodo first reported earlier this week, in an attempt to sleep better, the Hughes household recently merged two separate beds into one gigantic superbed: one king-sized bed pushed up against a full-sized bed (both festooned with dog-print sheets).
It’s a lot more room than they had before. And this new setup is “working out great,” says Chris.
“It’s not working for me,” says Mariesa. “it’s blocking the whole wall of windows and the dogs fall through the cracks of the two beds.”
Enter superbed II.
Actually, you can’t enter superbed II yet. It’s still being custom built by a local furniture maker and dog lover named Mike Ford.
Mike is working with the Hughes to create a bed that’s bigger and more dog-friendly than anyone’s seen before.
It’s made of cherry wood, and will be 12 feet long and 7 feet wide — Chris is 6’5” and is eager for his feet not to hang over the side — with a built-in staircase so that the older pooches can easily get onto the mattress.
[bp_related_article]
The king-sized mattress will be positioned sideways at the top, the full at the bottom, making what is expected to be a seamless, humongous place for everyone to catch some quality zzzs.
Mike has some extra surprises, too, in the way of dog-related design touches — he asked BarkPost not to spill the beans, but we feel comfortable saying that they sound barking incredible.
“It’ll look like it’s made for a king,” Mike tells BarkPost, while actually being enjoyed by “a lot of little kings and queens.”
(Mike, by the way, is not considering building a bed like this for his own family, because his rescue dog insists on sleeping on the floor.)
Superbed II should be ready in a few weeks. And then Chris and Mariesa — with the dogs — can finally, finally get some rest.
At least for a little while?
“We will have plenty of room for a few hospice seniors that just need that warm bed,” says Chris, already anticipating growing the pack until this new superbed is to capacity.
“If this doesn’t accommodate the new ones I’m moving out,” says Mariesa, before indulging in her own expansion plans. “I would love a little dining room table with nesting spots for their bowls. But I realize that is pretty crazy.”
H/T The Dodo
