girlfiend

My mom came in to visit with the Fiendling and take us out to lunch. I suggested that she come in early so she and the Fiendling could play on the playground for an hour while I take my super-awesome water aerobics class (in which I am one of two people under the age of 60. Except for the special needs people with their aid. But they’re all in their 40s or 50s). Anyway, she stayed at her sister’s last night since she didn’t want to impose her new $200 rescue dog upon us and the cats.

Her rescue dog, Stuart, was originally named Dylan only her sister’s bitchy gay friend has a dog named Dylan so she changed his name. The dog seems okay, but he’s terrified of everything, so scared that my cats don’t even care that he’s in the house. She’s only had him for a week or two and the second night she had him he got spooked when she was putting out the trash and bolted down the street. She and her neighbors looked for him for hours and he finally turned up about 5 blocks away under a bush. I’d feel sorry for him but he growled at the Fiendling. Twice. And the Fiendling was just trying to pet him nicely, not even abusively the way he pets the cats. I don’t like dogs who growl at my kid.

This morning she came in, put the dog in my bedroom and I dropped them off at the playground on my way to class. I got back an hour later and the Fiendling didn’t want to get in the car. He wanted to walk so my mom said she’d walk home with him while I dropped off the car and grabbed the dog to go for a walk before we went out to lunch. I got home and started back towards my mom and my son. I walked an awfully long time before I finally caught up to them, just a block away from where I left them. My mom had to stop at the fucking dollar store to buy the Fiendling a rubber turtle and one of those stupid luggage type backpacks with wheels that all the kids are dragging around these days. Seriously, the kid’s 19 months old. He doesn’t need a backpack.

So she took the dog leaving me to walk the kid home with his backpack. And of course he wanted to stop and play with the handle every three seconds and zip and unzip the pocket and push it in front of him which caused the handle to push in and we went about a block before I wanted to kill her and rip my hair out. After 15 minutes the Fiendling got tired and wanted to sit so I pushed him home in the stroller and carried his stupid, crappy, dollar store backpack for him. At this point my mom and the dog had been gone for about 20 minutes. I brought the Fiendling in the house, changed his diaper, opened the windows, checked my email, got the Fiendling a snack, drank some water, loaded the dishwasher and my mom still wasn’t back.

When she’d been gone for more than 45 minutes I started to get really angry. I was starving, the Fiendling needed to eat lunch, and we were going to a restaurant for lunch which meant we probably wouldn’t actually be eating for at least another half hour. I called Boyfiend pissed. He told me to feed myself and the baby and tell my mom lunch was off. Of course she didn’t have her stupid cell phone so I couldn’t tell her. I packed the baby into the car and drove around the neighborhood for another 10 minutes looking for her.

She was nowhere to be found and I was furious. The Fiendling was hungry and ready for a nap so I fed him lunch cursing my mother all the while. She finally showed up, frantic. The dog had gotten spooked, wriggled out of his collar and taken off. She’d been looking for him the entire time she was missing. This meant that after she reported him missing I had to put the cranky, tired Fiendling in the stroller and wander the neighborhood looking for her dog. We looked for more than an hour, at which point my mom said, “I’m done. I’m going home.”

I asked her if she was sure. She lives 60 miles away. I told her she should stay to see if the dog turned up. She said no and said she’d look around for a few more minutes then be on her way. I brought the whining and eye-rubbing Fiendling into the house and tried to get him settled for nap. Of course she forgot her stupid keys and called me to let her in the house. Then she wanted to read him a story and try to get him down for a nap herself. After 15 minutes it was obvious she wasn’t going to get him to sleep. I told her to give him to me. She said goodbye and left.

The Fiendling freaked out and cried for her for about 10 minutes. I brought him into my bed in the hopes that he’d fall asleep there. Instead he started pinching me so I put him in his crib where he cried for half an hour before I took him out. Boyfiend made lost dog signs at work and now he and the Fiendling are posting them around the neighborhood. I am so fucking annoyed that my day was shot, my baby didn’t take a nap, and now if someone finds her dog I’m going to have to take care of it until she gets here. On top of that I feel guilty because it’s not her fault the dog took off, it’s just typical. And the poor dog’s probably cowering under a bush somewhere terrified.