Achilles and the new floor

There was one minor problem with the new floor. Last night after I went to bed, I noticed that Achilles seemed to be wanting to jump down off the bed but was afraid to. He hung his chin over the side of the bed for awhile, whimpering. Finally, he jumped down and I realized what the problem was. The new floor is rather slick -- much slicker than the old carpet, that's for sure. When Achilles jumped off the bed, he skidded and slid across the floor into the wall.

He eventually hopped back up onto the bed overnight and then stayed there all day. He wouldn't budge. Not even for breakfast.

This afternoon I ran out to buy a couple of little area rugs to put down next to the bed to give him a non-slip surface to jump onto. He didn't meet me at the door when I got home, which is when I really knew how serious the problem was. He always, always greets me at the door when I come home. I took the rugs upstairs and he was still on the bed, looking scared and forlorn. I put the rugs down and tried to coax him to jump, but he just sat there and shivered. Finally I grabbed his collar and helped him down onto one of the rugs. He was ecstatic. He immediately thanked me with lots of kisses and then ran downstairs to be let outside.

He's a quick learner, because he's been hopping on and off the bed at will for the rest of the day. Poor thing probably thought I was playing a very mean trick on him. I felt so bad when I saw him sitting on the bed, whimpering and shivering, looking forlornly at the floor. Thank goodness the rug thing worked like a charm.