Home is where you start from: Here there be dragons

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Here there be dragons

I protect my children from dragons; -the real, the imaginary, the conceptional and the ones found only on the inside. That's my job, you see- I am Mom.

Wednesday, Amie met a dragon while walking down the street to visit with neighbors. I, mighty Mom, stood on the front porch and watched her walk along the sidewalk- vigilantly watching for any strangers-in-cars-dragons. I watched as Amie greeted a neighbor boy, and I watched as she bent down to pet his small dog.

This quote from a book has always stayed with me, "You know how it is when you're doing something you think is important and you miss the thing that's really important. And so it was that we missed it..."

And so, I missed it this time. The dragon, disguised as a Chihuahua, jumped up and bit Amie in the face. I'm thinking at least twice. No bark, no growl, no warning.

She has 5 stitches, mostly on the upper lip. She's recovered very well. The only lingering reminder, beside her face, is her fear of walking in front of this neighbor's house. Amazingly, she is not afraid of dogs.

Mom has recovered too, except for the lingering guilt for watching Amie look the dragon in the face..and failing to see the dragon. The what ifs...what if I had walked with her? What if I had taken them to Disneyland that day like I had intended? What if I had instructed her not to pet small dogs, or any dogs, unless I am right there?
What if the Dr. didn't do a good job with the stitches?

Mom-guilt is a powerful thing.

The photo above is of Amie writing about her ordeal in her diary, veery phonetically.

Labels: family

posted at 8:17 PM
7 comments

7 Comments:

At 5:52 AM, Karen Sue said...: sorry about the lip.... I have discovered that my border collie will snap at people, which stresses me, but it is just when they do the kissy thing, so everyone is warned not to get in the dogs face. He was attached by 2 dogs a few years back and that seemed to be his turning point. He bit my sons college roommate, but I was alright with that..he's not my favorite boy..SHAME ON ME...Have a good weekend...I think we may be having the end of winter here, although St Patricks Day week is always a good time for one more snowstorm..and we are at 291inches of snowfall, so I guess we'll just push it over 300. HELP!! SPRING!!
At 7:46 AM, Anonymous said...: I think all dogs smaller than a bread box should be banned from human society...DAD
At 8:14 AM, Luke Holzmann said...: For some reason a quote from Chesterton came to mind--this is my memory of it, so it's not verbatim; he's much more eloquent than I am [smile]--hope it's inspirational:

"We read fairy tales to our children not to tell them that dragons exist. They already know dragons exist. Rather, we read fairy tales so our children will learn that dragons can be slain."

May the lip heal scar-free!

~Luke
At 1:59 PM, Missus Wookie said...: ouch! So sorry to hear of the bite but so grateful she's not afraid of dogs. Ewok was bitten at that age and now at over 6' is still terrified of small yappy dogs :(
At 10:58 AM, Hen Jen said...: Luke,

thanks for the quote, wonderful!

She had her stitches out today and it looks like it is going to heal well.

thanks for the thoughts and comments, everyone. :)
At 12:11 PM, Ruth MacC said...: That's terrible, for both of you. I know how you feel. I went to Spain with Sean when he was 3. When we were wallkling to a shop a gate opened and a huge rothwiler bounded out, lifted Sean up by his hip and "literally" almost shook the life out of him. I was terrified at first when I saw it but the "mom" in me took over and I pulled Sean out of his mouth, put him behind me and screamed at the dog, pretending to hit him.

Eventually the shocked owner got the dog under control after I put Sean on top of a car. He left marks on Sean's thigh. A kind English speaking Spanish man who saw everything stopped his jeep and took me and Sean to a clilnic where I got him cared for.

I had to go to the police, wait for an interpiture and was told to go back to the house and ask if the dog had papers. The next day I had to leave my son with the pool life guard and go to the house. The owners of the dog wouldn't answer
the door.

The whole thing scared the life out of me. I felt ashamed I didn't react more quickly, however, it didn't take much out of Sean at all!!!

I got saved soon after that :o)

Praise God.
At 10:57 PM, Hen Jen said...: Missus Wookie and Ruth,

oh my, your experiences sound very hard to forget. And Ruth, I cannot believe the extreme you had to go to to rescue your boy! So glad it was not any worse than it was.

thanks for sharing, you guys.

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