Ok...I love my daughter. I even admire her for stepping into her husband's job while he is recovering, managing a kid with 2 year old behavior who challenges the odds minute by minute throughout the day, and running to and fro to a hospital, meetings, making sure her aging mother (the dear one who has been willing to stay at her house and help her out....yeah that's me) has her favorite foods and a glass of wine (or two) in the evening and in her spare moments, shampooing her carpets. She really did shampoo her family room carpets at least once weekly while I stayed in her home. However, I now draw the line.
My last day there was a heart attack inducing experience. The two year old, my darling little granddaughter Carson, who tries to climb over security gates, chases the dog with a pastic 18 in. baton, flushes toilet paper down the toilet while saying "bye bye paper," in a soft angelic voice, runs from her grandmother and falls on the floor in giggles, takes over my blackberry and plays a game that most six years old couldn't handle....yeah that one had just fallen asleep yesterday morning. Her mother had checked in and was on her way home from work. She was actually a block away. I decided to run into the computer to check and see if a new hire had cleared fingerprinting. I heard the front door open, and I heard my daughter screaming..."Oh my God. Oh my God. Call Marty." Well, my first thought was that sleeping baby who I had looked at literally 2 to 3 minutes before must have woke up and was hanging or wasn't really sleeping but was unconscious or worse. I leaped up and ran into the family room and was told, "Call Marty. There is a rattler and he struck Penelope."
Penelope is a huge white English Bulldog. As Dana ran to get the rest of the dogs (they have five and yes, I have been babysitting in a kennel for the past couple of weeks,) into the house. I called Marty to find that he wasn't home, but was in another town at least 20 to 30 minutes away. Marty said call the fire department. Seriously? I thought animal control came after animals and predators. I called the fire department, and heard this wonderful kind lady telling me an "engine" was on its way and she hoped the dog would be ok. Dana, in the meantime, is putting a leash on Penelope who is starting to look stoned and leading her to the car. Her parting words were, "don't let that snake out of your sight, Mom. If it moves, follow it." WHAT????!!!!! Follow a rattler, I would rather take on the meanest bureaucrat in government. Follow a snake...surely you jest. I moved right on to..."Oh please God, don't let the snake move." All of this noise and little angel just dozed away in her buggy only 3 feet away from the snake with a sliding glass door between them. I watched the snake.
Soon...4 or 5 firemen arrived. The four dogs now safely locked into the kitchenette area were carrying on and if you have ever heard a Chinese Crested yell, you will know what I mean. I started to let the firemen out the door and said, "Oh, you can't go out there. There is a doggie door. Let's go through the master bedroom. Oh, I forgot, there is a doggie door there too. Ok...there IS a side yard. Can you go through the outside gate." The firemen said, "Of course. We can do that." they left, except one stayed in the house standing by the sliding glass door in front of the baby's buggy as if he wanted to make sure if the snake tried to come inside, he was ready to protect the baby. It was quiet now. The rest of the firemen were using a long pronged tool to pick up the snake and guess who chose to wake up at that moment. You got it. Precious little Carson. When Carson awakes, she always slowly opens her eyes in a sort of slit position sometimes going back to sleep and sometimes working towards being awake. Well, one little peek and her eyes opened up to about the size of silver dollars, and she reached out her little baby arms saying very softly, Nana...Nana...but never taking her eyes off the tall fireman standing in front of her buggy. I picked her up and of course, I then had to show her the scary...danger...oh no...(using all the words I could think of familiar to her to represent danger...don't touch.) The firemen put the snake in a bucket. They did tell me that it was good that Dana told me to watch it and go with it wherever it went, because too often, they go to pick up a rattler and people say, "It's here..well it was here a few minutes ago." One fireman did ask what kind of dogs are those? I asked, "Oh the naked ones." They are hairless Chinese Cresteds, the black one is a French Bulldog, the brown one is an American Bulldog and the English bulldog is the one that was struck by the snake."
The snake is captured. The baby now says "Nake...Nake...No, No, No," while she shakes her finger back and forth in my face. She goes to the front window and as the fire truck pulls away, she says "bye bye fire truck, bye bye fire truck."
Penelope made it to the vet on time. What a day...oh...and I forgot to mention, it was my daughter's birthday. Happy Birthday Dana. Your Mom is out of here. Your husband is coming home today from the hospital. Your dog is in the doggie hospital, and you have a $1,600.00 vet bill. Is there anything else you would like?
Bye Bye Carson. Bye Bye Nana. Nana loves you. Come and see me when you are 3. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Dana. Your brother says since the snake is a baby, there will probably be more of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment