Chapter 7
(11th September 2000):
The matted princess
Dear lovers of Gráinne,
Of course I'm convinced that everybody loves me, but
some more than others. I'm such a personable pup. Every now and then I run into
someone who doesn’t want a Wheaten greeting all over their face, but most at
least hug me back. We went to the retirement home yesterday and I was allowed
to visit with the elderly folks sitting out in the warm sunshine instead of
waiting in my playpen in the car. Most of the residents are blind, but they
were believers in my beauty when they felt my silky coat. I chewed all over
Daddy's mum's hands to let her know she's special.
Speaking of that silky coat, I almost
lost it! One day in August, when I had about given up all hope of ever seeing my
crate in Bramstedt and my Mitsubishi playpen again, lo and behold! There were
Mummy and Daddy to pick me up after their vacation. I was so surprised that I
forgot to give them the cold shoulder for leaving me and I wrapped myself
around their necks. "Is this Gráinne?" they kept saying, "She's
huge!" Well, I didn’t have much else to do in the kennel but to grow. This
time Uncle Walz grinned and gave me a good reference and my folks breathed a
sigh of relief.
Next stop was at the groomer's for an appointment
for a haircut. Frau Helms put her hand on my coat once and said in horror,
"Oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nnnnooooooooooo! She's all matted right down to
the skin. All we can do is shave her naked and start over." Mum said to
me, "No way, Gráinne. Grandpa and Grandma are coming in October to meet an
Irish Soft-coated Wheaten Terror, not a skinned pig."
We had ten days to get the mats out and
Mummy got right down to business; we had a wrestling match for 1 1/2 hours a
day. Kysha's panic drops helped some, but it still hurt and I still shouted
"Ow!" Mum still had to hold me down with the wrestling holds she had
learned watching Uncle David in high school.
We were finished the night before D-day
and when we showed up at Frau Helms' she was impressed. I got a grown-up 2-hour
haircut and they all say I'm a real beauty now.
That really is the disadvantage of being
a Wheaten; I bring home a good part of the woods from our walk every day and
Mum always heads for the wire brush.
Sometimes I have to hit the shower first. Last week
Mummy and I took off across the fields. She looked funny in her rain gear: rain
jacket, rain pants and her beloved Wellies (rubber boots for you Americans). We
ran into Mum's hairdresser with her dog Cilly. Now that's my type of canine.
She took me off into the field and we rolled and wrestled in the mud together
until we looked like .....
Well, Daddy took a picture of me when we
came home.
Cilly
wanted to avoid the shower bit, so she took a few baths in the pond in the
woods. I couldn’t get her to understand that I wanted to leave my mud pack on
longer to get even more beautiful and she kept chasing me back to the pond and
showing me how to plunge in and swim. No way, I said.
Now that it's autumn our walks have got
slower while Mum raids the elderberry trees and Dad combs (gosh, I hate that
word) the woods for mushrooms. So I have to get more strenuous exercise with
sprints by tearing through the fields like a kangaroo and weightlifting through
the woods with the biggest stick I can find. One day I found an egg along the
road, which I thought was every bit as good as the plums and blackberries and
cherries Mum and Dad have been finding. Speaking of woods, Gráinne's Wood isn’t
bad, but I've found a real prize place in the next town: Syke. I took my folks
there and showed them how to get some real exercise. Mummy walks along the top
of the Wolfsschlucht (Wolf’s Canyon: and this in our flatland!) and Daddy walks
along the floor of the canyon. Gráinne flies from one of them to the other and
back again. Mummy said she has to close her eyes when I take a flying leap from
the top. I bet she shuts them on the roller coaster, too.
With my folks being educators, I suppose I
ought to tell you that my vocabulary is growing. I know “Come”, “Come here”,
“Heel”, “Sit”, “Stay”, “OK”, “Get your toy and bring it here”, “No pulling”,
“No biting”, “Down”, “Good girl”, “Cookie”, and my favorites: “Wanna go
bye-bye?” and “Wanna go for a walk?” In the hopes that they'll take me back to
puppy garden, I don’t do them right all the time, but these two are so pleased
with me that they just say, "If Thomas could only see her now."
That's a shame; I really enjoyed doing everything wrong.
I'm looking forward to two events this
fall: They've promised to take me to the island of Spiekeroog
during fall vacation and let me run on the beach to my heart's content. That
ought to be even better than the long jump sand pit at the Bramstedt sports
field. And Thanksgiving! Mum is going to roast me a turkey!
Slurps and nibbles from
Gráinne
Back to my homepage
Proceed to next chapter