November is a month of gratitude. A month to reflect on what we are thankful for, whether these are little things or bigger ones. I sure have a lot to be grateful for in 2010, that’s for sure. I plan to spend this month truly giving thanks, and I will begin by telling you all what I am grateful for today.
Today, I am grateful for my husband.
You may be thinking that this is not a very original thing to be thankful for. I can see that. He is a good husband – no, a great husband. And a really great dad to Hoot. He works hard to put food on our table and a roof over our heads. He listens to us and takes care of all the "boy things" at our house. We wait all day for him to come home. We love him.
But let me tell you why I am particularly grateful for him today.
Today, at about noon I put Owl down for a nap on the couch and went in the kitchen to do the dishes. Before I put Hayden down, I had put the dogs outside to sniff around and play. I started rinsing a dish and I looked out the kitchen window into the backyard. I like to watch the dogs while I do the dishes, out there smelling all of the leaves and rolling in the grass and doing other general dog business.
Today, they were up to no good. No good at all. At least Piper was.
I looked at Piper (the pug) and she was doing something strange. I was not sure what, but she was hunched over, and her usually springy tail was straight. I looked a little closer, and I saw that she was eating something. This is nothing new. Piper is always eating something – she is remarkably good at finding food (or what she thinks is food) and even better at quickly eating it before you know what has happened. Piper has eaten rat poison, an entire chicken carcass, an entire box of vanilla sandwich cookies, a pound of hot cocoa, a half-pound of fudge, countless packs of gum, several packages of chocolate candies – the list goes on and on. So it is not unusual to see Piper eating something we did not intend for her to eat.
I assumed that she had some garbage that had blown into our yard until I looked a little bit closer. I realized that I had no clue what she was tugging on and chewing. I went to the back door and squinted. Still no clue. I yelled at piper and walked toward her, at which point it dawned on me a little at a time what she had.
I took a step closer, “Small. A bird maybe?”
Two more steps. “Furry?!?! Oh god. Not a bird. A mouse? I am going to die if it’s something gross like a mouse…”
Another step. “Bigger than a mouse…. And furry…” Step. Step.
At this point, Piper was still trying to gnaw on it as fast as she could to get one last bite before I spanked her or something, and then she picked the unidentified meal up and started to run off with it.
“Bigger than a mouse, furry, and…. Long ears??”
I swatted Piper on the butt and she dropped the animal. It was a dead rabbit. I screamed. I was so disturbed that my little Puggy was so gross as to be eating a dead animal. Yes, I know she is a dog. I just hate it when she reminds me now and then by doing dog things.
I was so grossed out, I started crying. I herded the dogs into the house and called Garrett, in hysterics.
I cannot really explain why I was in hysterics. It isn’t like I was afraid of the rabbit, or sad for him exactly, or like I have never seen a dead rabbit. I don’t really have any idea why I cried. But I did and when Garrett answered the phone, the conversation went something like this:
G: Hi.
Me: (all watery and crying) Hi….
G: (panicking) What happened?
Me: (crying still) Piper was in the backyard eating a dead rabbit and it was so gross and I got her in the house and now I am crying because it was gross and I am scared that Piper has dead rabbit all over her face and I don’t know what to do!
G: A rabbit?
Me: Yes.
G: And now they are not near the rabbit?
Me: No.
G: And?
[Long pause. I’m still crying.]
Me: And… it was just so gross!!
G: Well, okay… (I can tell he thinks I am crazy-cakes right now….. and hell, maybe I am.) Do you want to pick it up with a shovel and put it in the trash?
Me: What?! NO!!! (sobbing)
G: (laughing) Okay. I will come home and take care of it. Just keep the dogs in the house. Um…. Why are you crying again?
Me: I DON’T KNOW!!!
G: Okaaaaaaaay….. (You know how someone says that when they think you are crazy-cakes? That’s how he said it.) I’ll see you in a bit.
And this brings me back around to why I am grateful for my husband. He came home and disposed of the body of a nasty little animal that made me cry. (The nerve of a rabbit to die in my yard.) He made my bad day better, even though he thinks I am a nut, and I love him. You may agree with him that I am a nut, and that is okay. I think I am too. But dead rabbits are gross and dogs who eat them are grosser.
Good thing I have you, Babe. I love you. J
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