Grandma and Me

I told you about Grandma, about the fact that she didn't like dogs.
All her life, she didn't like dogs. She lived a very long time and she didn't plan to change.
She was a women who was set in her ways.

When she was a little girl, a big dog jumped on her and pushed her down. It frightened her so much that she didn't want to ever meet a dog, pet a dog, have a dog.

Now, my mom is just the opposite. She is dog crazy. Ever since she was a little girl, all she wanted was a dog. She would pet any dog she could. Every birthday and every Christmas, Grandma would ask her what present she wanted and my mom only had one answer.
"I want a dog".
"No you are not getting a dog. What do you want?"
" I want a dog."
"No . No dog. What toys do you want?
"I want a dog."
My mom never gave up. Her answer was always the same. Her birthdays came and went and no dog. Christmas came and went and there was always presents , but no dog. No dog. No reason give to her. Just no. " No dog."

This went on for years. Mom always asked for a dog. Grandma always said no.

Then one late summer day, Grandma agreed to let her get a free beagle puppy.
Mom was the happiest twelve year old girl. She named her puppy, Pebbles, after the baby girl in the her favorite tv show, The Flintstones. Pebbles loved to play and my mom always played with her. My mom feed her and played with her and that was all.
Peebles was never allowed in the house. Nobody trained her. She was a puppy full of energy and she had no rules. She lived in a dog house, with a chain around her neck. She didn't leave the yard but when she could, she would. Neighbors always brought her back. In the summer, she ate the corn cobs from their dinner and chew on the rose bushes. Nobody gave her chew toys!

My Mom loved her dog, even though she didn't know how to take good care of her.
Some people have their dogs live outside; out of their lives. Those dogs don't have much of a life.

It was a very sad day, when the dogcatchers came and took Pebbles.
She was getting really fat and Grandma said she didn't want to have puppies around.

My Mom was at school and a neighbor girl who went home for lunch, saw the dogcatchers at grandma's house. She found my mom at the school playground and told her that Pebbles was being taken away. As soon as school was over, my Mom ran home to find Pebbles. She looked everywhere; around the block, in the alleys, behind buildings, under porches. She asked Grandma where Pebbles was. " I don't know. That dog always runs away."
Even though, my Mom knew about the dogcatcher's visit, she didn't want to believe it.
She kept looking for Pebbles, till it was too dark to be outside.
She asked Grandma again, "Where's my dog?"
"Don't know. "

Something breaks when people break apart. It is a sound that dogs hear. It sounds like tearing and crunching and crying. It hurts our ears. It hurts our hearts. Grandma's lies broke her trust and it broke my Mom's heart. My Mom never got her answer to "where is my dog?", never got her dog back, never heard from Grandma that she was sorry that she hurt my Mom. My Mom was so sad and lonely. The sound was heard by dogs and my Mom carried that sound with her for a very long time.

As soon as my Mom could, she got her first dog, Lucky. She was living in a college dorm and away from home for the first time. A few years later she found Dobra in the Arizona desert, then Circus in an empty apartment, then picked out Rusty and Molly from their litters and then she found me. My mom takes really good care of her dogs and we all have taken really good care of her.

So all these years, Grandma lived without dogs. She would seem my mom's dogs, when she would visit her at my mom's house, but the dogs would never be welcomed at Grandma's house.

Till, I came to visit. I didn't know any of this story. I like a good story. Better yet, I like to tell a good story and I was so surprised at this story. I didn't know that some people don't like dogs, because everybody likes me.