She’s wise beyond her years

Posted in Julie's columns, Mom Stuff
by Julie Wallace

My little girl never has been predictable when it comes to what she asks Santa for each year.

One year, shampoo dominated the list. Another, she  asked for a pair of diamond earrings — the bigger the better.

Last year, I thought she topped all when she asked him for bells from his sleigh after about 100 readings of The Polar Express.

So I’m never quite sure what is going to come out of her mouth (and I’m pretty used to astonished and puzzled looks from Santa’s helpers), but she still managed to catch me off guard this year.

While shopping at Great Northern two weeks ago, I noticed there wasn’t a line for Santa. Now as anyone knows, there always is a line to see to Santa at Great Northern, even though the legendary Santa who used to appear there retired a few years ago.

So even though she wasn’t dressed in Christmas finery, we popped in for a visit and a picture. And then my daughter knocked my socks off — asking Santa for a “real live puppy dog.”  Santa, for his part, just nodded his head, probably not sure what to say given the fact that my chin hit the floor.

You see, a puppy just hasn’t been a part of any discussion we’ve had in our household.

That’s because our very old, very feeble dog is still hanging on.  I had Mallory’s picture taken with Monte at Christmas time last year because I figured he wasn’t going to be with us much longer. At that time, he was struggling to walk, and his weight was dropping from the hefty 80 pounds he’d been at his AKC championship breed Boxer prime.

But here it is a year later, and he’s still around, albeit in pretty bad shape. We carry the old guy in and out of the house, and if he’s 50 pounds, I’d be surprised.  He’s Daddy’s dog through and through, though, and it’s just been a hard-to-broach discussion about what needs to be done for the old guy.

But now, we are finding ourselves having that discussion because of a little girl’s visit with Santa. She talks about how sad she is about her buddy, and I often find her on the floor, cuddling with him because he can’t come to her and we don’t dare let him into rooms where there is nice carpeting.

She wants a dog she can train, a dog she can walk and a dog she can take places with her. And poor Monte, he was all of those things for so long, he’s just too tired to be that anymore. I really think he’s trying to hang on just for her — but I think her asking for the puppy was a convoluted way of her saying we all need to let Monte know it’s OK, he doesn’t need to keep fighting anymore.

–Julie Wallace