Meet my new grandson:
Rowdy
My son, Devon, who is living at home and going to community college, visited a friend at Virginia Tech over the weekend and fell in love...with Rowdy. Fortunately, he is responsible kid and cares tenderly for his adoptee. But even the strongest of individuals has difficulty surviving puppyhood and the sleepless nights that seem to go along with it.
So, I arose this morning at 6:00 a.m. to feed and care for Rowdy. Bleary eyed as I was, his eagerness to see me and his delightfully cheerful demeanor made it almost pleasant. After he gobbled down his breakfast, we shivered together in the dark, cold 30 degree weather while I waited for him to figure out what he was supposed to be doing out there. Back inside at last, he wanted to play, I was ready for a nap. Guess who won!
My son had to work today, so Grandma is babysitting. I'm really not sure how I feel about this! But, hey, he's a good kid and deserves some help and I'm flexible. So I worked while Rowdy napped and then it was time for another trip outside. Together we happily romped around the yard but in the process I managed to step on his poor little foot! He's all of about 5 lbs. and very hard to see and keep track of and his favorite place to be is under foot. He whimpered and cried and wouldn't walk. I was devastated. I picked him up, brought him inside and whimpered and cried with him. But as my son reminds me repeatedly, "he's durable", and sure enough within 20 minutes he was fine. So I took him back outside to finish what we had started.
I placed him on the grass. He doesn't like the grass, probably cold on his tummy, so he scurried on over to the nearest garden. It happened to be the garden with our small, decorative pond. In a flash, without a moments hesitation, he stepped right through the thin film of ice and into the pond! Squirming and struggling to stay afloat, his tiny little face in a state of panic, I frantically fall to my knees and scoop him up out of the ice cold water. I cradle him in my arms to keep him warm and in the process of standing step out of my slip on shoe, lose my balance, and we both fall to the ground. I do my best to protect him as we descend so I don't crush him on top of stepping on him and almost drowning him!
We limped back into the house, overwhelmed and defeated by how complicated new life can be! I wrapped him in a big fluffy towel, poured myself a cup of tea and we both took a nap.
I'm really not sure I'm cut out for grandparenthood. It's a good thing I get to practice on a puppy.
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