Teenagers and Wannabes

I'm living with two teenagers and one almost/wannabe teenager. But Bunny isn't a REAL teenager YET! Thank goodness.
Boy was surly all through middle school and the first part of high school, but he came around towards the end of 10th grade and for the most part has been pleasant if not exactly a paragon of virtue. (Last weekend's speeding ticket for instance...)
I really thought we might have dodged that bullet with Bella. She was mostly delightful all through middle school. Then high school reared its ugly head along with Bella rearing hers. She is surly, lazy and ungrateful with brief moments of her old delightful self giggling through. I live for those bright moments- cringing and crying through the rest.
So I realized I REALLY need to appreciate Bunny in her final pre-teen moments. She is still funny and mostly agreeable and I REALLY need to enjoy it. I know her time will come,also, just like I know (ok- I hope) Bella will eventually go back to her old personality, same as Boy.
These last 24 hours have given me lots to appreciate. Who else would think, when given an assignment to bring in a G or PG rated DVD for Broadcasting, to say they would bring in a DVD we don't own? Now we DO own probably 200+ appropriate DVDs for this class. But she writes up a story board for a movie we don't own. And Target doesn't own it either we discovered in our mad dash at 5pm to find the movie. Thankfully one of her equally crazy friends does own the movie and she baled us out.
And then this morning. Oh! This morning was entertaining. She missed the bus so I drove her to school. Coming through the neighborhood we pass a girl fishing. Bunny looks at her and says "What teenager would be out fishing at 8:10 in the morning?" I joke "Maybe she's just out walking her fish?" and Bunny, bless her heart,pauses and then says (I promise) "You can't do that, can you? Walk a fish?" We discussed the possibilities of how and why you might walk a fish and then decided overall it wouldn't be a very nice thing for the fish however we worked it.
Driving on, Bunny commented that she really didn't want to go to school today. (What a surprise!) As we made the last turn to school she piped up "Why don't we just go on to Chik Fil A and you and I can hang together today, mom? It's okay. I promise." She said it so nonchalantly, like it might even be an option, that I almost took her up on it. Or at least let her be late for school so we could have a fast food breakfast together. Can't imagine Bella coming up with that idea anymore. She could easily come up with the "let's go on to Chik Fil A for breakfast" part but probably wouldn't if it had to include hanging with mom for the rest of the day.
Ahhh. Teenagers. And almost teenagers. I hope I survive. Life is good, no matter what.

Bye

Our spectacular dog, Jake, died this morning. Or, more accurately, we had him put to sleep. He had his leg amputated almost a year ago because of osteosarcoma, a really vicious bone cancer for dogs. Even with the amputation his life span was supposed to be three to six months if we were lucky. September 25 would have been one year so we totally lucked out on that account. We noticed at the beginning of the summer that he was panting more so I suspected that his cancer had returned. The doctors had warned us it would probably come back in his lungs or kidneys rather than his bones. He went with us to Colorado for three weeks in July and he seemed to enjoy the mountains and chasing the deer. He LOVED the Arkansas River and would plop down and drink the cold water whenever we took him to it. Once he was home he seemed to age quickly.
Bella and Bunny and I returned for a week to Colorado, leaving Boy and Dad at home with Jake. Jake started throwing up and not eating so Boy took him to the vet. The docs x-rayed him and pronounced his lungs full of cancerous tumors-he had days to live. Every morning I would call home checking the puppy report. He had eaten, or not. He seemed okay. Or tired. I crossed my fingers he would survive until we returned home. I explained to the girls how gravely ill he was. I guess it didn't register because as we left the cabin I asked the girls if we should take his toy chipmunk to him since he would not live to come back to Colorado. Bunny screeched "What?". I explained again. His cancer has returned, he has days to live.
We got home last night about 8pm. Jake seemed happy to see us and in pretty good shape. I heard him try to get up in the middle of the night and then heard him slip, but otherwise he slept well. I, on the other hand, had a splitting headache and did not really sleep until about 5am. At 9am, the daddy came in. "Jake is in the drive. He fell and can't get up." I go outside and he is smiling, such a Golden Retriever! We try to lift him but it is obvious his one "good" back leg is not working. The daddy-o says that he went in for coffee and heard Jake rush the gate as he always does when someone walks by, and then there was a yelp. The walker reports that he was running and just fell over. His back leg has snapped.
I sit with him as dad gets dressed, then he sits with him while I get dressed. I wake the girls. They aren't five anymore, they need to know what is going on. We call Boy who has spent the night away. Jake is loaded into the van and off to the emergency clinic we go. Five crying people and one smiling dog. To the end he did not show any pain, except for brief shudders across his face and then he returned to that Golden smile. He never even winced when we lifted him into the car, even though it must have been painful. He was so happy to have his whole family together petting him! The doctor was kind, the end was peaceful.
Jake is at peace. I am in tears.