Stories Of London

PAGE TWENTY ONE:
A NEW COUCH FOR OLD

Casanova/Puppy is now Ten Years Old

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PART ONE

When Casanova/Puppy came to live in my house, I asked that his couch come too. I had seen that he was very fond of it and had spent a great deal of time stretched out on it. I learned that his habit was to sleep on it a night together with the occasional nap during the day.

An Early Morning Nap

As a result, I thought that it might make the move to my house easier for him if he had the couch with him. Little did I realise that although he would still sit on it, and stretch himself out on it and occasionally sleep on it, he immediately decided to pass the night sleeping on my bed, which he soon began to think of as HIS bed!

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The couch has an interesting and perhaps somewhat amusing history. It had been purchased some forty years earlier at a store named, Scandenavian Designs in Nashua, New Hampshire.

The purchase of the couch was a result of a forgotten birthday. The family had totally forgotten their mother and wife’s birthday. Although she admitted that birthdays in themselves were not particularly important to her, the fact that her husband and her children had forgotten hers when they always looked forward to what she did for them when their days came. She thought nothing of running all over the town to buy each one of them special gifts and to cook them their special favourites for dinner that day. And now, after a day’s work, when she arrived home to an empty house with no cards of greetings waiting for her. When her husband arrived home, he was somewhat annoyed that there was no dinner waiting for him. Her children were also put out to find nothing prepared.

When they were all together, she told them that today was her birthday and that if they wished to eat then she suggested that they order delivery from a restaurant. She said that since none of them evidently lacked sufficient time to remember her birthday, she had decided to go shopping and get something special for herself.

The next day, she went to Scandinavian Designs where she treated herself to belated presents! One piece of furniture that caught her eye was a couch with soft cream-coloured leather upholstery.

Various Colours of Soft Leather

After wandering through the store and examining everything available, following careful consideration, she decided to purchase the couch.  And for good measure, she also decided on an armchair, a coffee table and two teak bookcases to be included as part of her family’s birthday gift!

After the delivery, and following the initial surprise of her family, her younger son was heard to say to his siblings that we do not dare to forget any such dates in the future for if we do there might be no remaining money for our birthday presents!

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The couch held a prominent place in the household for many years and was enjoyed by all members of the family.

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After Casanova/Puppy came to live with the family, he quickly adopted the couch as his preferred place to sit and rest, once he was able to climb up onto it, that is! Eventually, small scratches and tares began to appear in the leather as a result of his claws from his jumping on and off the couch and stretched himself.

Eventually the couch took on a somewhat shabby look, and thoughts of renovation began to be discussed. Once it was decided to have a new covering for the couch, some strong furniture upholstery was carefully chosen for the seat and for the various cushions that were always on the couch, unless knocked on the floor when he jumped off. The fabric used was thick, durable and somewhat regal in appearance with a floral design and was ideal for such an imposing animal as Casanova/Puppy.

The New Seat Covering

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PART TWO: THE OLD COUCH

The day Casanova/Puppy moved to my house, his couch was brought here by the two sons of a friend of mine and placed in my sitting room before the window.

When Casanova/Puppy made his entrance into my house for the first time, he immediately began to make himself at home by going over to HIS couch and jumping up on it. After a few turns around on it, he stood up and rested his front paws on the back of the seat and began to watch what was happening outside.

Click here to listen to Peggy Lee  (1920-2002) sing I’m lookin’ out the window

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By this time, the couch had served as his private seat, or should I say throne, for about ten years by now. Since Casanova/Puppy saw the couch as belonging to HIM, and him alone, he was never happy when others dared to sit on it. He begrudgingly tolerated me on the rare occasions when I sat on. Often as not, when I dared to sit on it, he would jump down after a few minutes and prefer to sit on the floor!

It was evident that he wished for the couch to be free at all times so that he was always free to choose where he wanted to sit without impedance from Usurpers; sometimes at one end or perhaps the other or even in the middle.

He also enjoyed stretching out on it since the length of the couch was sufficient to accommodate a full-length stretch from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail!

Happily for him, I quickly ceded the couch to him. I was not fond of it, as I found it a little too low for me and so preferred to sit elsewhere. In addition, he enjoyed having cushions on the couch which I am not fond of at all.

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However, to be totally honest, I would have tolerated the couch if he had shown a greater willingness to share, but he was too regal to share a throne with one who is there merely to open doors and to provide food!

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Although Casanova/Puppy’s couch had been given the new seat covering several years before it was moved to my house, after about a year or so there, it began to look old and definitely the worst for wear! I am happy to say that he was not responsible for this other than causing some usual wear and tare on it. Happily, he seemed to have outgrown any desire to damage furniture. In an attempt to revive the covering, I removed it and had it cleaned. I returned it to the couch and maintained it in place with Velcro.

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After a while, the couch looked tried again and I decided to have the couch recovered. I spoke to a dressmaker about it and asked if she would be willing to make a suitable covering. She said that, in view of its shape, this would be a difficult undertaking and suggested that I try to buy a ready-made covering. I set about looking for such a covering, but this proved to be difficult. Sadly, I was not able to find one that would fit exactly the shape of the couch.

Eventually, I found a ready-made covering of chocolate brown-coloured velour. It was slightly larger than the couch, but had flaps that easily folded over the arms of the couch. I arranged the covering to fit the couch by tucking the excess material down the space between the seat and the arms. By the time I had finished, it looked reasonable. The covering had, what I thought an advantage in that it included a covering for the upright of the couch. I kept the original cushions with their covers and the final product looking very nice.

What I did not reckon with was Casanova/Puppy and his behaviour! Being a dog, he does not always sit still and will jump up and off the couch numerous times during the day. His natural movements soon caused my neat arrangement of the covering to be left in a somewhat chaotic state! With his joyful leaps up to look out of the window in order to fend off potential attacks from various people that dared to come to the door, I often found the covering over the upright of the couch in a crumbled mess.

As a result, I was forced to reposition the covering a number of times each day. I quickly found this task to be somewhat annoying and it did not take me long to start thinking of another solution to hide the state of the couch!

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What I especially wanted from a covering for the couch, in addition to hiding the damage to the seat, was something to cover the upright too. The chocolate-brown velour effort had failed. It had been suggested that I attach large extra-strength wide elastic straps to keep the covering in place, but I fear that I was far too lazy to get into something like this! No, some other solution had to be found! And then I heard about Weighted Blankets!

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Assorted Weighted Blankets

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My joy of thinking that a Weighted Blanket was the answer to the problem of covering the couch was, alas, short-lived. I had bought the widest blanket available. Within a few hours of it being placed over the couch, Casanova/Puppy’s jumping on and off the couch quickly brought the blanket into disarray with the back of the couch soon being uncovered.

Sadly, a Weighted Blanket was certainly not the solution to the problem and the object was returned.

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Early one morning a few days later, the penny finally dropped! As I came into the sitting room and saw Casanova/Puppy sleeping peacefully on the uncovered couch amongst the pillows, it became blaringly apparent that the solution to the problem was evident! The time had come to buy a new couch! I can not believe that it took me so long to come to this decision.

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When the decision was made to buy a new couch, I could have swore that I heard church bells ringing throughout the land!!!

The Willows: Church Bells Will Ring

The Bells of The Monastery of the Caves, Kyiv in Ukraine, Westminster Abbey & St. Paul’s Cathedral

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And then after the joy of making the decision, I had to turn my attention to the search to discover the proper replacement that would suit both him and me.

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