Daughter's wrapped up with bedtime zoo

It's clearly crisis time in our house.

Our 6-year-old's bed is becoming too small.

It's really not the-incredible-shrinking bed, it just seems that way.

That's because Bailey insists on sleeping with every conceivable stuffed animal known to man including a giant fluffy blue-and-black snake.

My wife, Joni, and our oldest daughter, Becca, brought it back from their recent trip to the St. Louis Zoo. They snoozed at the zoo as part of a Girl Scout trip that involved sleeping overnight at the zoo. Fortunately, they weren't behind bars.

The zoo, however, seems tame compared to Bailey's room.

Getting Bailey tucked into bed is a major challenge, what with all those creatures tangled up with her in the covers.

I've been known to evict some of the animals only to have Bailey rescue them from the corners of her room.

I've pleaded with her to trim the menagerie to just a few bedtime creatures. But she won't hear of it even if it means sleeping on the edge of her bed.

She likes her jungle of a bed, even piling the animals on top of her head on occasion.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the federal government steps in and puts an end to all this bear play.

Self-respecting government bureaucrats, no doubt, are alarmed at the prospect of kids trying to wrestle with all those critters for a good-night's sleep. Besides, as bureaucrats know, animals don't belong in bed. They should be in a zoo somewhere.

Never mind that these animals don't bite, chew or spit, it's the principle that matters.

I'm thinking of buying Bailey a bigger bed, but I doubt it would help. She'd just find more things to pile under and on top of the covers to keep her thread-worn Buddy Bear entertained.

She can't bear the thought of letting her animals sleep alone on the floor.

So we've had to settle for her nightly zoo.

But at least they don't bite. And they don't flush the toilet or turn off the lights like the feline pets of Russ and Sandy Asbury in Whitewater, Wis.

Their mischievous cats, Boots and Bandit, have become so adept at flushing that the Asburys have to shut the bathroom door when they go to bed. "Otherwise, one or the other of the cats are in there flushing away all night," Russ Asbury has confessed to the news media.

The cats also are proficient at unrolling toilet paper and turning the bathroom light on.

So far, none of Bailey's bedtime pets have shown the least interest in the bathroom other than when they're accidentally discarded there.

There's no need for toilet training with this zoo crew. They just lay around on Bailey's bed waiting for goodnight hugs.

It could be worse. Bailey, at least, doesn't take her rock collection to bed.

She knows that might make for a rocky night or at least a sore one.

Bailey's buddies are the silent type. But they beat counting sheep all night.

Wrapped up in the covers with her creatures, Bailey has no trouble getting a good night's sleep.

Accept for the occasional crush job, the cuddly critters do quite well.

Joni and I have been known to give them hugs from time to time. Why should the kids get all the fun?

Still, I have to wonder how Bailey's bed will hold up to the increasing population of stuffed animals and the occasional lost Barbie doll.

Sooner or later, we may have to get her a bigger bed so all her stuffed animals have more room to roam.

As Bailey knows, bedtime is the right time for bear hugs.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.