Dave (DH) and I admitted this weekend that we had to bite the bullet
and fork out for a new bed - our old one (which we've had for more
than 10 years and was second-hand when we got it) is begging to be
retired to the great mattress heaven in the sky.

Like many in this group, we have the perennial problem of the bed
being too small to fit the hoomins in after the cats have made
themselves comfortable, so in a fruitless attempt to restore democracy
in the bed-territory, we decided to go for a king-sized bed.  I know
that it probably won't work and that the cats will expand to fit
slightly more than the available space, but we'll give it a go.

Anyhow, Dave came up with a fabulous way to ascertain whether or not
the beds were going to be big enough - take cat-sized stuffed toys and
arrange them about the showroom beds in similar places to where the
cats sleep.  Gave me a real good giggle that one - can you imagine the
faces of the sales people if we wandered around the stores armed with
3 large-ish stuffed toys, explaining that it was impractical to bring
the cats themselves.

tee hee

Tish
no, we managed to shop without the aid of both stuffed toys and cats,
so the cats will just have to learn to live with the bed we chose.