Barkthur's Daily Dive

    Barkthur was an old dog. He was so old that he needed a scootychair to get around, and this worked fine for the most part. The only time it didn't work was when he needed to descend the stairs in the morning. All of his food, water, toys, and activities for the day were down there, and every morning he had to stand at the top of the stairs and brace himself for the impending tumble.
    It was horrible. Every morning, he stood there trembling, but would eventually take the inaugural step, which inevitably led to his tumbling violently down the stairs. He was a tough dog, though, so once he was finished with the day, he'd scoot himself back up the stairs and rest for hours. He had to prepare his body for the next day's tumble.
    He always heard his masters trying to convince him to try the new bed they'd bought for him on the main floor, but it was clearly some kind of synthetic polyester whatsamajibber. Barkthur didn't trust it as far as he could tumble which was obviously pretty far, but that didn't matter to this ol' dog. Eventually his masters relinquished trying to change Barkthur's sleeping arrangements, and it just goes to show that you can lead an old dog to a new bed, but you can't make him sleep.