The Heating Pad

Remember the snuggi wars? Remember how Petey and I fought tooth and nail for control of the beloved snuggi that John gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago? Remember how I finally ceded control of the snuggi to him? Well...forget about it. Petey and I have embarked on another war. This one could be epic.

For Christmas this year, John gave me a heating pad. It is an attempt to equalize our vastly different body perceptions of temperature. I'm cold. He's hot. He envisioned me putting this on my stomach under the aforementioned snuggi while we watched TV at night. He should have known, as should I, that Petey would be right in the midst of the warmth no matter what.

It began Christmas night, as we settled in for the evening. I made myself a nice little nest on the couch, with the heating pad at my feet since they were like ice cubes. I had that puppy cranked up on the highest setting and was enjoying the ever increasing warmth immensely. Then Petey sensing the heat on some cellular level or something hopped up with me.

Now, I'm used to sharing the couch with Petey so this was nothing new. That is until he notice head radiating from the foot of the couch. Petey was on that like no body's business in about two seconds. It was fine, really though, for me. He was adding to the heat down there.

John and I laughed about how quickly Petey noticed the heat and inserted himself right in the middle of it. We were a little concerned about what might happen when I got up and turned the heating pad off. Much to our surprise though, nothing happened.

I got up after the show and went on about my business. Petey remained firmly entrenched right where he was absorbing any residual heat. He stayed there all night. He didn't even get John up in the night to go pee.

Again last night, Petey and I cranked up the heat under the snuggi. This time I did have it on my belly and Petey was right there beside me. The only difference was that he got to hot last night and moved. (Score one for me!) I think maybe I'll use that strategy going forward. It has been a long time since I've actually been hot, not counting that fever I had with the e-coli.

Once I got up, however, Petey was right back in the warm spot and stayed there all night. This morning we had to wake him up and send him out.

Maybe this isn't a bad thing after all. Petey, right now, seems to be happy with the residual heat once I get up and the pad is turned off. And, he's sleeping all night, so John is too finally. Maybe this won't be the epic battle I envisioned at all. Perhaps we can work out a peace treaty. Perhaps, just perhaps. Either that, or I crank it up on high all the time!