Dog Pretends To Love New Bed Even Though It Clearly Doesn't Work

Just to be nice, Kenny the golden retreiver pretends that
a much too small dog bed purchsed for him works just fine. 

As is customary here in this blog thingy, I get a little overwhelmed by the news and awfulness of the world. I'm sure you've noticed.

When that happens, I retreat to fun little dog stories, or something like that.

This is one of those times.

I've decided I really like Kenny, a 10-year-old golden retriever from Elkhart, Indiana.

His human mom, Heather Stoddard, knew Kenny needed a new doggie bed, so she ordered one on line.

Stoddard forgot to note that the doggie beds she was looking at came in various sizes. The one that arrived was teeny tiny, made for pups much smaller than big Kenny.

Dogs tend to seem appreciative of gifts and want to please their human companions so he pretended the tiny dog bed was just perfect for him.

The result was a bunch of viral photos of Kenny earnestly pretending the tiny bed worked wonderfully for him.

"It was honestly funny seeing how small and thin it was. It almost looked like a pillow," said Paten Mathes, 15, Stoddard's son and Kenny's other human companion.

Kenny the golden retriever realizes the too small dog bed
is too small for him, but at least it makes a nice pillow

By the way, Stoddard realized her mistake as soon as the dog bed arrived and she went back on line to buy a dog bed that works much better for Kenny.

By the way, I get it dogs might latch onto objects that they like not entirely because they're trying to please someone, but because they like the object and it gives the comfort.

For instance, my dogs Jackson and Tonks are weird. When I sit down to watch TV, Tonks will sometime rest her head of my feet so she has the comforting if stinky scent of my shoes.

Both Jackson and Tonks want me to put down pants that need laundering on the floor so they can sleep on them, again because it's probably comforting.  

Still, I like to think part of the motivation of all this stuff that Kenny, Tonks and Jackson do are because they feel an attachment to their human companions and want to please them.

I'll go with that.

The photos of Kenny got so widespread that some pet companies sent the family some dog beds that might be a better fit for Kenny.

Kenny is testing them out and will decide which one he likes best. Any other dog beds that Kenny isn't as enthusiastic about will be donated to animal shelters, says the Huffington Post. 

See, Kenny is quite the kind dog. I have one thing to say to him. It's an approving "Woof!!!"