Don is a GRANDPA!

It seems like only yesterday that little Heidi was destroying our home and tearing me to little shreds with her tiny, razor-sharp teeth. And here we are today, December 28, 2008, and Heidi has little puppies of her own!

It all started at 11:00 this morning, when Don left to take Lorraine to the Emergency Room in Westbrook. Lorraine has been yelping and screaming since yesterday morning, when she mysteriously ‘broke another bone.” This has been happening off and on for about a year now. She never shows any broken bones on an X-ray, her heart is in better condition than teen-agers, and her blood-work is fabulous. However, you would think that she was dying by the sounds of it. Amazing how this happens whenever somebody else in the house is hurting.

Shortly after they left I heard a tiny noise at the foot of the bed, and a licking sound. I have been spending most of my time in bed since Dec 20th, when I injured my back again. I tripped while carrying a bag of Christmas gifts, caught myself before hitting the ground, and smashed what is left of my discs together and crushed the nerve. I am on muscle relaxors and prescription pain meds and don’t get out of bed much. But today, I was up and turning on lights in a hurry.

What I found was Heidi, looking all embarrassed and curled up in a tiny wad in the POMERANIANS TINY BED, while the displaced Pom Sasha stood looking around in amazement and Gretchen stood over a tiny, dark, wriggling mass on the bedroom carpet. Her look of astonishment went from the ‘mass’, to Heidi, and back to the mass again, and said: “NOW look what ya did, ya NINNY!!!” And poor Heidi was trying to turn herself inside out with embarrassment.

So I hauled out several old bed sheets and towels, and got her ‘uncurled’ from the Pomeranian bed and shooed everybody else out of the bedroom, and showed her what to do with the little dark screaming thing. And from that point on, all went quite well. Heidi was due to have her puppies on New Year’s Eve, so she is 3 days early. But that is perfectly normal, as parturition can range 3 or so days either side of the due date.

I had gone up to the cities for an early Christmas at mom’s (see Christmas slideshow, below). I met up with a college chum whom I have kept in contact with. Becky and I used to study together, and spent many Tuesday nights commiserating over Applebee’s "PERFECT" Marguerittas, bemoaning our homework load, teacher’s expectations, and life’s other great tragedies. I don’t know as if we ever solved any imperative problems that way, but we sure had loads of fun, anyhow. So, Becky graduated and works as a Certified Veterinary Technician in Eden Prairie now. She made it to the big time! And I am so proud of you, Beck! And Becky brought us in for an ultrasound and an X-ray to see how many babies there were. The Vet –whose name, by the way, REALLY IS Dr. Doolittle – determined that there would be SEVEN puppies for sure, and possibly EIGHT. Well, as of this minute, there are SEVEN and we have FIVE GIRLS and TWO BOYS. Grandpa is very, very pleased!!! And, BTW, Lorraine is fine as well. She just needed more of those ‘happy pills’ again.