Do you have a favorite bathrobe? I have two and I love them equally. They feel great, and I think I look good in them. They complement my gray hair.
In two days, both robes were ripped open by Sebastian’s super sharp teeth. He’s not intentionally destructive. He’s just excitedly playing and he’s dealing with what nature gave him.
There was a time when I would be on Amazon immediately looking for a replacement. For what? So that no one sees the holes in my robes? So that I feel whole? At the end of my life, the robes will be in a trash bag holes or no holes.
One of the most amazing things about aging, in my mind, is that I don’t care about things as I once did, nor about perfection. I’m completely content with what we have and with the condition it’s in today and might be tomorrow.
The payoff for me and Ray is watching the fear, excitement, and resolution in Sebastian’s eyes when he stepped into the swimming pool to be with his dads. Yes, he had jumped in the pool twice on his first day with us, but he didn’t know what it was, and he got scared so I jumped in and pulled him out. Since then, he’s kept his distance from the pool.
We picked him up and brought him into the pool, and we had shown him where the steps were to get out. Nevertheless, he barked at us when we were in the water, and he ran around the pool to where we had swum. The bark said to us, “Hey, I want to be in there with you, but I’m afraid. I don’t know how to get in, but I don’t think I want you to pick me up. I want to do it on my own.”
And then he did it, and my, was he happy and proud. He swam in a circle and then went to the steps, pulled himself out, shook off the water, came back to the steps and plunged in, swam in a bigger circle, went to the steps, pulled himself up, shook off the water, and re-entered the pool to swim in an even bigger circle. He could now be with his dads all by himself. He learned something that excited him to his core. He only quit getting into the pool when his dads were ready to get out.
Ray and I haven’t used our swimming pool much since we bought this place in Wilton Manors four years ago. We’d jump in occasionally after gardening because we were sweating and dirty. Now I suspect, we’ll be in it every day with a puppy whose world has expanded magically. I think that’s an even trade, holes in two bathrobes for the joy of sharing the excitement Sebastian felt when he swam with his dads for the very first time.
