A dog repeatedly sleeping with his head hanging off a bed should not automatically be dismissed as having an amusing preference, especially when pain and weakness are already known.
Behavior can reveal physical limitations.
Sometimes the clue is not that a dog refuses to rest.
It is that he has invented an unusual way to rest because ordinary positions have become difficult.
Mochi found one.
It just happens to leave him slowly sliding toward the floor.
Tonight, He Returns to the Familiar Edge
The kennel grows quiet.
Mochi climbs onto his bed.
His front paws pull.
His chest reaches the mattress.
Then he stops.
His head extends beyond the edge.
Lower.
Lower.
His eyes close.
Soon he is asleep.
Minutes pass.
His body begins creeping forward.
The movement is almost invisible.
Eventually, Mochi's nose hangs only a short distance above the floor.
His eyes snap open.
His weak front paws brace against the mattress.
He pulls.
Once.
Stops.
Pulls again.
His body moves backward several inches.
Mochi settles.
For a moment, it looks as though he might finally move farther into the bed.
Instead, his head slowly drops over the same edge again.
His eyes close.
And the cycle begins once more.
Mochi has an entire bed beneath him, yet night after night he sleeps balanced at its very edge—leaving the shelter with a much harder question than why he prefers that strange position: what movement hurts enough that repeatedly waking himself before he falls still seems easier than simply moving his head onto the bed?