Intergenerational People and Pets
“Train up a child (pup?) in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Our granddog Otto is spending a couple weeks with us while son Andrew is with friends in Germany. Best we know, young Otto is an Retriever/Beagle mix. Our Jack is Retriever/Poodle mix. At rest, they share their Retriever affectionate affability, AKA 'lovability'. In motion and intelligence, another matter.
Poodle brain Jack is a smart guy though with plenty of energy basically, eventually compliant. Otto. The jury is still out. After my morning jaunt with Otto, I told Dianne I am not sure if he is a Beagle brain or Tasmanian Dervish. Though Jack is two years old in spirit, he is 10 in skeleton-musculature. So we alternate his days. Anyhow it was just Otto and Bill.
Not sure about the physics of the micro-burst energy torque of a 40 pound young dog on the arm of a mature 165 pound guy. Every few seconds, just as I think maybe he's got it, another leap-jerk perpendicular away and/or across my gait, great leaps forward, then slam on the brakes stops. Like the water incrementally heating up on the frog, the leash wrapped around my hand nooses up to tourniquet blood cut off to my bluing fingers. I tease...a bit. Long way to go, but today, our 3rd day out, I do see signs, small for sure, that he is learning.
Around the house, aging Jack is modeling a bit for nip and tuck Otto, the way son Bailey's mature Buddy 1 did when Jack was a punk. Buddy 2 - Bailey's now dog - somewhat navigates the generations between Otto and Jack when all together.
Otto and Jack meals are also a challenge to mesh times, keep each dog eating out of his own bowl and special mix diet. Well, on it goes. Human memories of grandparent and parent tables, growing up being taught how to hold our forks, chew with non-verbal closed mouths, beginning to develop the art and practice of talking and listening among the generations of our family and friends.
In THE SECRETS OF HAPPY FAMILIES Bruce Feiler discusses the new appreciation of family-friend sit down together meals in our much noted and lamented gobble it down, solitary on the run culture. Though take back the Table itself can be a guilt inducer for people doing their best with busy kids and lives, Feiler makes the point it is not a particular time or menu at the same time, but that friends and families make time to eat and talk at least some time. Even late evening dessert or bedtime snacks. Meals together give chances for people to share their generational stories, as well as present up and down plights - all of which weaves us together to be more resilient to do better at school and work, and navigate the inevitable joys and hurts of our lives.
We are learn to walk, eat, and do life with a lot of patient repetition. Good table memories are even better than table manners. On our weekly Friday date to Publix, over a package of stew meat, Dianne and I reminisced all the savory meals her grandmother Shockley could do with such simple fare. Memory meal planned on the spot. Dianne sent me off to get some 'Eyrishh' potatoes in the way Mama Shockley said it.