As most of my local readers already know, both of my children were married in the last year.
The next logical life step for me and my wife will be the role of grandparents.
But we’re not there yet and I’m not rushing anything. I seem way too young to be a grandpa anyway, although the folks who run the AARP business don’t seem to think so.
From watching my parents and my wife’s parents and my wife’s sister and her husband, I do understand that becoming grandparents is about the coolest thing this side of heaven.
But, again, we’re not there yet.
However, since last Thursday, we have been grandparents-in-training. Sort of.
We actually have been dog-sitting for my daughter and her husband’s pet beagle while they were vacationing for a long weekend in Cancun.
What’s wrong with that picture? We’re here with the dog and they’re having fun in the sun.
I digress.
Because of the best examples we have for grandparents — my parents and her parents — we understand that you will do anything for your child. The bad thing is, our kids know we’re pushovers, too.
So my wife agreed to have Ace, a full-of-energy-ball-of-fire-happy-go-lucky puppy, for a visit to Grandma’s house. Ace is a great dog who has no off button. He’s always go, go, go. And he’s also one of the most powerful dogs, for his size, that I’ve ever been around.
Ace is affectionate, overly friendly and inquisitive about everything. He also likes to play chase and world-breaking sprint star Usain Bolt couldn’t keep up with him.
We knew that and still agreed to take him on for the week. The things we do for our children.
Overall, it was an exhausting week, especially for my sweet wife. She had the task of watching Ace most of the time. The timing of the dog-sitting job was not good (or maybe was good?) for me since the 16th Region basketball tournament was being played in Morehead. I was gone four of the six nights that Ace visited.
But I did get our family room Ace-proofed before our little visitor came.
We have our own dog, a 14-year-old poodle named Mopsy. But she couldn’t have handled a week with this bouncing ball of energy. It’s kind of like asking an 85-year-old grandmother to play with a child in the terrible 2s.
Mopsy couldn’t have taken it so we shipped her to my mother’s house where she is given the queen treatment on a daily basis (grandparents can even spoil granddogs).
So Ace had the run of the house, or at least our family room, while here.
While he was exhausting to watch, we learned to love him during his stay. He’s a sweet dog who has so many good qualities.
We were able to let him run in the back yard on a long tieout chain, which he loved. Every sight and sound while he was outside was like a wonderful experience to him. He was so fun to watch, which I did all day on Tuesday under springlike weather conditions. My neighbor’s little girl enjoyed running with Ace in their yard (Emmy couldn’t catch him either).
My wife had her moments with Ace, including the night that he chewed through two retractable leashes.
When the first one broke, they were just heading out the door. She was able to quickly grab him and bring him back inside. She retrieved Mopsy’s leash and started out again. Ace was sniffing around the edge of a wooded area in our neighborhood when the second leash broke. Luckily, Beth had a dog treat in our pocket.
My wife is a praying woman. She even prays for parking places at busy stores (most of the time, by the way, one comes open). When the leash broke, she prayed that Ace would not take off running into the woods for a midnight jaunt. He didn’t. She picked this 30-pound bundle of energy up and prayed that Ace would be calm as she walked back to our house. He was calm (now that, friends, is truly a miracle).
Sometimes it takes a little divine intervention when you’re being a grandparent, be it for a child or dog.
The rest of the time was fun, yet tiring. We were glad to see our little granddog go home to Cincinnati knowing that our job as grandparents is done.
For now anyway.
MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.
