Noelle with Kathleen and her matching pajamas
Hunter and his new Spiderman bike
Noelle appeared in our room at 2:30 am. I thought we were going to kill her. She stated that she was going to wait on Hunter before she went in the den. So from 2:30 til 5:45, she pounced on Paul's back and tossed around in our bed with sheer anxiety. At one point she announced that she was going to go wait on the steps for Hunter because she was scared she wouldn't be able to hear him coming. I quickly told her that we heard her coming and that she wasn't going anywhere. When Hunter finally got up, it was so fun watching them. Hunter ran in the den and froze. He didn't even see the bike that Santa had left for him. Noelle had to show him, then she quickly went and embraced her Kathleen doll. You may wonder where LeeLee is, you guessed it, she was still peacefully sleeping. She finally joined us around 9 am.
Okay, you are probably asking yourself why Rags is dressed up in a cape and Halloween is already over. Well, there is a very good explanation for it. We learned today that Rags should also be known as Rags the wonder dog.
Let me set the stage for you, the kids and I are in the front yard playing. We had just gone out to say good-bye to our sweet adopted college student DJ, when we decided to hang outside for awhile since the weather was so beautiful. Paul decided that he would go in and change the timer on our Christmas tree that sits in our front window. The only way to get to the window is to go through one of the windows in the kids rooms. Once Paul got out on the roof, he saw that the gutters needed cleaning, so he began working on that.
Then Rags appears in the window and looks out at Paul. We see him too, but then he disappears. He appears again, then again he disappears. At this point, I thought we ought to go get him so he could come out and play with us. We started to head for the door when, surprise, Rags jumps out Noelle's window. I must say, it looked like a movie star stunt dog jumping out of a burning building. But unfortunately he didn't stop. He ran straight down the roof and when he hit the gutter, he jumped off. The actual flight or fall (whichever way you want to look at it) was beautiful. But the landing on the other hand was awful. He landed head first on our concrete sidewalk. After his face took most of the fall, his shoulder slammed into the concrete as well. Then he did a roll, and then the yelping started. I ran to him quickly and tried to calm him. He had blood all over his face and legs. And to make matters worse he was trying to lose consciousness. I kept blowing on him trying to keep him awake. All the while Noelle is screaming, "Is he going to die?" which of course if freaking Hunter out. Paul quickly made it outside and ran and got the car. Luckily, we live just a few short miles from one of the top Vet Schools in the Nation, so we headed there. With every minute that passed he seemed to be doing better. We had determined that the source of the blood was his chin which he had landed on. When we got there he was seen immediately by the nicest team of vets and vet students who determined after looking him over that they couldn't believe he had jumped off the roof and landed on concrete.
We are so thankful and feel so blessed that Rags made it through this. He is Hunter's best buddy, and we can't imagine our lives without Rags. If you're in the neighborhood and want to stop by and see the splatter marks on our side walk where he landed, we will be happy to show them to you.
So, I'll end this with some words of wisdom, when you go out a window onto your roof, close it behind you so your dog won't be tempted to see if they can fly. Rags was a graceful flying machine, with a really bad landing. But we are determined to tame his wonder dog qualities!
Eleenah at 20 months
Noelle and Hunter with Santa and Mrs. Claus
