Disappointment

Donovan loves walking the children to school in the morning. He gets a fair amount of exercise early in the day. He gets to greet lots of children, run, smell tons of interesting things along the way, and play with several friends he's met who live in yards we pass. He waits at the front door when he sees the children don their backpacks.

The tenor in the house must change as we prepare to leave. I'm sure it's louder and there's more activity. We tend to move from the kitchen into the dining room, where the front door is located. Grandma and Grandpa come down the front sidewalk and Grandma always has a big train whistle that she blows to let us know she's approaching the house. Donovan's excitement builds by the minute and he runs in circles in the dining room.

Yesterday, when Daelyn heard Grandma's whistle, he opened the front door. Donovan bounded down the steps to greet Grandma and Grandpa. I yelled to Grandma to get him and ran for his leash. I thought she had him, since he was running around her ankles excitedly saying hello. Then I heard screams to "Get him" and "Omigosh!" and "Quick! Stop him!". I ran back to the front door with leash in hand to see Donovan quite a ways down the road. He had greeted the Grandparents, then taken off down the sidewalk for school, crossing one side road on his own.

As we were yelling, he ran up to a group of older children a half a block down the road from us to say hello. They heard us and grabbed ahold of his harness, hanging on until Grandma and I ran up with the leash. Donovan was clueless what was wrong. He heard the whistle. He saw the commotion. The door was opened. It was time to go to school. He was headed down the sidewalk to SCHOOL. Nevermind he was headed by himself.

Today, Daddy walked the children to school. Grandma and Grandpa had other commitments and Don is off most Fridays, so he decided he'd take the children. He was emphatic about NOT taking Donovan.

"He takes too long," he complained to me. "He has to stop and smell every post and every blade of grass." All too true. He's poky, inbetween running spells. But he loves it so, Mommy would have never denied him.

I stood in the dining room holding him while the children and Daddy walked out and soundly closed the door inbetween us. Donovan was crushed. He sat down in front of the door with his nose to the crack and waited. Daddy didn't return for him. I tried apologizing, but I'm not sure he could really grasp how bad I felt for him.

I'm sure I'll pay dearly for Don's decision. The puppy's already tried to pull the toilet paper off the roll in the half-bath and nosed around in a box of Q-tips Don was using to clean our phones, trying to eat them. He's frustrated and looking for trouble. A good walk was just what he needed to get out some of the energy stored up during the night.

Alas, Daddy's think differently than Mommy's. Maybe I'll have to take him for a long walk later this morning and try and make it up to him.

Mercy, Lord, like the rain - - - falling from Heaven in BIG drops. Mercy for Donovan and for me. An extra measure for the protection of the house while Donovan's in this foul mood wouldn't hurt, either.