Bandaids

Cujo here. My mom has been suffering a series of calamities these past few days. As you all know, I am always listening to her and I pick up on a lot of things. I notice things. 

Like all the band aids adorning her hand when she was mindlessly petting me while reading her emails. Well, as best she could with Bo leaping all around us. I have learned to tuck myself as close to Mom as I can get, and as far back into the sofa, sometimes halfway under the cushion. This way I can avoid being jumped on.

Eddie ends up taking the brunt of Bo's enthusiasm for life. But, back to the band aids ... Seems that Mom was grating carrots for a new recipe she found and accidentally grated her pinkie finger. She was quite proud of the fact that she avoided getting blood on the food. Actually, I need to say that Dad was not a fan of the new recipe.

She encountered more injuries to the same hand when she demolished a wall. It was an outside wall that created a barrier between the door to the office and the old front door to our home. Once upon a time (I hear this should be the beginning when one is reciting a legend), our living quarters were bigger and we had an actual living room with a lot more places to sit. It had a door right next to the door that went into the office. I wasn't around then, but Wall-E told me the story. It was also before Wall-E came to live here. Oscar told him about it. There were four dogs here at the time. Sarge, the collie and Louise, the Saint Bernard were still here; along with Oscar  and Emmy (Mom calls them her awards, but that is another story).

Gavin, Wall-E's boy was staying with his Gramma and Papa (Mom and Dad, in case you were wondering) while his mom was taking a vacation. He was just a little guy, I am told. It was Memorial Day weekend and Mom was so busy checking in campers. Dad was busy doing what he called putting out fires (and I thought Mom spoke in riddles). Gavin was with him most of the afternoon and evening, as he was using the 4 wheeler to get around. I am told that little (and big) boys are quite content to just sit on the 4 wheeler and pretend to drive. 

The sky was getting dark and Gavin was getting tired, so, of course, Dad brought Gavin to Mom. He was tired and whining and didn't want to sit behind the check in desk with his Gramma, who didn't have the freedom to wheel around the park. The boy was up past his bedtime! Mom was checking in some campers when she heard a scream and then saw all of her dogs running loose out the front of the building. Gavin was open mouth crying and Mom was trying to gather her dogs back inside. 

Dad had not locked the door to the private side when he brought Gavin in. After the dogs were caught, Mom asked Gavin if he had opened the door. This made Gavin cry louder and suddenly four children ran in saying that Oscar had bitten a little girl. Oscar was quite proud of himself! As Wall-E told me, the little girl came inside his territory, where he was minding his own business, protecting Gavin and she slapped at him when he growled and told her to leave, so he bit her.

I confess, I would do the same thing even if I had not been protecting a little boy. I do not care for little people, I want to bite them all. Mom says this is a personality flaw of mine. Really? I don't see it that way.

At that time, there were signs posted that said "DO NOT ENTER" PRIVATE" and "BEWARE OF DOG". My Mom is a big believer of signs, you know. The little girl came in the store and her parents came with her. Mom apologized profusely (my new word!) and assured them that Oscar had all of his shots. She was cleaning the little girls knee where Oscar had done a magnificent biting job and she asked the little girl who had let her into the house. She told Mom that she had opened the door herself and gone in. 

Wall-E says Oscar was never so proud of Mom, when she said to the little girl, "Oh, honey I am so sorry my dog bit you, but he was doing his job. He was protecting his space and my grandson." The little girls father got really mad at Mom!! He told Mom that she should have the dog removed and maybe put down (This does not mean that Mom would call Oscar mean names, it means that she would have him killed!!!). Mom told the man that this was not going to happen. She showed the man all the signage and he told her his little girl did not know how to read. This man did not know my mom very well! She asked the man why his little girl was left to her own devices, unsupervised and wondered out loud where he was when she got hurt. He didn't have an answer for that, other than to say he thought the campground was safe. "Safe for who?" asked Mom. She went on to tell the man that a child, so little should be supervised. She could have fallen into the pool or been abducted by some ne'er do well, had he not noticed the close proximity to the interstate. What if she went into the men's bathroom, not being able to read the words on the doors? Never mind the boy frog and the girl frog adorning the doors.

This is how she came to think that we needed something to divide the front porch into public and private sides. A few years later she closed off the front door to our home and built another wall to take the living room away and make more retail space.

The divider needed to come down, or so Mom said. This caused Dad to sigh deeply and tell her it was not a priority. I suppose she decided it was and yesterday she took it down. Dad was surprised when he came in at the end of the day, the divider was gone! The pieces removed carefully by Mom. Mom told us dogs that if Dad had taken the wall down, it would just need to be burned. She did it so carefully that all the components can be re-used. My Mom is amazing, I tell you! 

But, she did get lots of splinters in her hand. She said she was putting "drawing salve" on them to make them easier to remove. If she says so, but that stuff looked like the ear wax she dug out of Eddie's ear when it was infected. You don't suppose she saved it, do you?