Sunday, January 2, 2011

Not A Good Way To Start The Year


No one should have to start the New Year mad!

Even less should one have to start the year mad at their dog . . . you know man's best friend and all that stuff.

But that is exactly what happened in this household.  The details are a little sketchy.  After all, the dogs still aren't talking about it much.  But this is what fell out, the best I can deduce.

White Dog and Brown Dog were left home alone on New Year's Eve.  This made Brown Dog decidedly grumpy and started off the evening on a bad note.  To make matters worse, fireworks began to go off in the neighborhood and Brown Dog found himself nervous, disturbed, and feeling very, very alone.

 


About this time, Brown Dog spied something he had not yet noticed in all the holiday festivities.  Down under the Christmas tree was a large, soft, white flannel sheet, used as a tree skirt.  It looked very, very comforting . . . for a dog who is nervous, disturbed and feeling very, very alone.

Brown Dog began eyeing the sheet.  White Dog smelled trouble and warned Brown Dog to mind his own business, be content with his cast-off quilt, stick his paw pads in his ears, and be a good dog, which of course only encouraged Brown Dog all the more to have . . . that . . . soft . . . sheet.The fact that Brown Dog was on his leash, which was attached to a pillar two feet from the tree mattered to him not in the least.  In fact, it served only to heighten the challenge of having . . . that . . . soft . . . sheet.

And, so he pulled, he tugged, he threw his body at the tree, he twisted, he jumped.  And by gum he got that sheet.

White Dog, meanwhile hid his head under his own well-worn, cast-off comforter, put his paw pads in his ears, hummed loudly and said, "I don't see what you're doing.  I can't see a thing.  I know nothing that's going on."




That is how it came to be that as the 7 of us walked in to the house, bleary-eyed, in the wee hours of New Year's morning, we found the tree, rotated 90 degrees, bottom 2 rows of expensive artificial tree foliage bent to the ground, a veritable shower of artificial tree "needles" on the floor, ornaments scattered about . . .



. . . and a very sentimental, hand-crafted, 25 year-old ornament smashed on the floor. 


Have I mentioned that no one should have to start out the New Year mad?

After a cup of tea, my emotions were back in check, I had decided that Brown Dog could live in safety for another year, and I was beginning to believe that 2011 might actually turn out to be quite a satisfactory year.




It was at this point that Youngest Son approached me tentatively, eyes wide, gesturing in the general direction of the dining room table, mouth moving but no syllables coming out.

Yes.  Vintage glass ornament.  Part of a set from the 1930s.  Handled with care by my German grandmother for years and then passed down to me.  Smashed.

Children don't understand these things.  It's round.  It must therefore be a ball.

If things don't turn around quickly here, I'll be the one in bed, covers over my head, waiting for 2012.

Have I mentioned that no one should have to start out the year mad?

Time for more tea.

8 comments:

  1. Dogs.......Kids..........You had better hide that precious tea cup I see here next girlfriend!
    I am so sorry for the ornaments, truely. Wishing you a marvelous, unbroken 2011 Shelley!
    Feel the hug!

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  2. oh my. I would be mad too - mad and so very sad :( I hope you have other ornaments with that set from the 30's! (I'm jealous you have those!)

    Did you glue the angel together? We have an ornament that was shattered and glued back together (it has a story) and we enjoy telling the story every year when we put that (ugly) one on the tree. It might be worth a try!

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  3. and I just realized how fitting your blog name is for this post!

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  4. Oh dear....this brings back memories!! Are you sure it was brown dog...how cute is he? Maybe white dog had is paw in it too?

    Yes...we have been there...I made the mistake of making cookie decorations one year for my tree...{you know where this is going}...yes we left our sweet pooch alone..came home...tree over...every last cookie gone...our dog was smart enough not eat the ribbon the cookie was tied to..so we had all these little red ribbons left handing from our tree.

    Don't be mad...easy for me to say as I didn't have any precious ornaments smashed to bits.

    Happy Tuesday!!!!

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  5. Ahhh...but look at those puppy eyes Brown Dogs giving you...I'm sure he didn't mean to do it. I only say this, because sometimes I have to be the defense attorney for our dogs...and that's the line I use on hubby ;o)

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  6. aww... that stinks. i'm so sorry.

    at least you have photographs and the memories of these pieces.

    poor thing!

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  7. Seriously hilariously AWFUL! That "GET RELAXED" tea container only adds more good humor to such
    a(n)....event? memory? nightmare? There's just no making this stuff up, is there? You could make german glass glitter from the ornament...just saying. Here's looking forward to a much a better start to 2012!!!! Xo, Sue

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  8. I am so sorry for the the breakage of that dear ornament....
    But it did make me laugh how they both went to town when you were gone- My dogs ripped down the Christmas tree one year and devoured all the "red" apple ornaments. The "RED" apples stained my new beautiful "WHITE" carpet, not to mention my dogs threw up....grrr.

    Wishing you better days and a Happy Healthy New Year!

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