They're tiny and their tooney...

Some kids really live up to their names....


One of my kids’ names is only one letter different than Elmira. Remember the character from Looney Toons? She always said this about animals “I just want to hug ‘em and squeeze ‘em and kiss ‘em and hold ‘em and love ‘em forever and ever.” During her death grips on them, their eye balls would pop of the sockets as they would try to claw their way out of her affectionate assaults.

This post is going to be dedicated to “Elmira’s” adventures with animals.

Recently, a small dog followed a child home. This dog is owned by another missionary family. When “Elmira” saw Ruby she locked her in her room b/c she couldn’t “walk back home on her own.” It was already dark out and they didn’t want her to get hurt. “Elmira” and her sister tucked Ruby into the bottom bunk, with a bowl of dog food dumped on their bed room floor. When we found them asleep on their bedroom floor the next morning, they made it clear to us they were protecting Ruby. We made it clear to them that Ruby can hold her own. One of the older girls told me to tell "Elmira" not to do that, b/c she'll get bugs in her bed, and I said, you and I aren't sleeping in it? :) I did tell her that Ruby doesn't belong locked in their room.

A yellow lab puppy that belongs to the neighbors often wanders over to our house. I’ve seen the girls walking around with it in their arms, even though it’s approximately their size. I’ve also seen it with a dress on, and being pushed around in a baby stroller.

The old golden retriever, Kona, that lives with us has been seen with my favorite apron tied on it’s back.

Friday, we were looking for Tyson, the pit bull, to take him to guard the new property for the night with our Rottweiler. Jose was walking all around the house/property calling his name. I was looking in the house, and thought it was extraordinarily strange that we didn’t find him right away. Jose told me he thought he’d seen the dog go into Mom’s room, and would I check? So I went in there, but no sign of the dog.
When I came back out “Elmira” suspiciously closed the bathroom door with the light still on, exiting and remaining there, hands behind her back still grasping the door knob. I asked who was still in the bathroom. “Tyson” she said.
“Jose and I have been looking for him, why would you hide him from us?”
“He’ll bite Jose.”
I just sighed and told her we don’t lock dogs inside bathrooms.
Really, I think she didn’t want the dog spending the night out at the property, she just underestimated her power of preventing that.

C—although not “Elmira”, has also done her fair share of dog/people torture, the last few days. A weirmeir (a gigantic dog!) is visiting us while Hannah visits. This dog’s name is Papi, and it is terrified of C—and with good reason. She gives it these big neck hugs and chases it around the house telling it what to do like it’s a toddler, “don’t lick that, eat this, bite her” (that would be me.) She grabbed my sweater that I happened to be wearing and tried to provoke the dog with it. I asked her not to damage my clothes. Also, the word Papi comes in a very popular song, which C—has found appropriate to sing/rap at him every 30 seconds, just the chorus though, which is probably more torturous than getting my clothes destroyed.

Consider this a fair warning, not to bring your pets around if you don’t want to have to pay for pet therapy later… ☺