Maureen & the Circus: Airedales and Grandchildren

Maureen writes:

All of our Airedales have been, or currently are, devoted to our grandchildren. A very genuine link has developed between these children and my Airedales.

Our first Airedale was Angie. She was, incidentally, bred by Margaret Glass who wrote the very touching story about Suzy. After Angie joined our family, our son and his wife produced baby boy. Angie, a retired show girl, doubtless had had little experience with children but she instantly fell in love with the baby. She hovered over him, offered kisses and clearly adored him.

I was lucky enough to be entrusted with the little fellow's care fairly often. On these occasions, I would normally pop the baby into his stroller and, with Angie accompanying us, we would go off on an outing. As frequently happens when one is accompanied by a very cute baby and an extremely handsome Airedale, strangers would stop us to chat, inquiring after both baby and dog. When this occurred, Angie would immediately ease herself between the talkative chance-met individual and the baby to sit firmly in front of the stroller. The message was very clear: he's MINE! Do no harm!

Later, the Littlest Lunatic became part of our pack. Some of you may know that LL was a fierce little soul with a good many issues when we first adopted her. She was a serious fear-biter and an excellent resource-guarder. In general, she was very free with her teeth, and was not above offering a nip if dinner was not produced quickly, a knot was combed out of her wooly coat with too much enthusiasm, we tried to remove something from her jaws or, at times, for no reason at all! While we were working on extinguishing these behaviors, we were invited to visit our son and his wife, who by then had two small boys, at their lakeside vacation home. I was very anxious about the visit and kept LL tightly leashed to me at all times when we were in the house and around the family.

One afternoon, though, my daughter-in-law and I were supervising the children while they played in a huge wading pool down on the first terrace below the deck. The children, having doffed their bathing suits, were splashing about entirely *au naturel. *Meanwhile, the rest of the family was up on the deck, enjoying a cold one and shooting the breeze. LL was leashed and with them

All at once, the older child, who was perhaps four at the time, leaped out of the pool and streaked for the deck to join the other group. LL spotted the child and became fascinated by his...er..."wiggly bits". She edged toward the little guy. He ran to her. I'm leaping up and down, knowing I couldn't get to the deck in time, calling to the people above to shorten the leash but, thanks to a good deal of ambient noise, they could not hear me. I headed for the deck at warp speed just as LL reached the end of her tether. Her nose connected with the child's "wiggly bits". I thought in panic, "Oh no! Is she going to bite?" when suddenly LL's little pink tongue came out and she offered a bit slurp to the area of interest. The child danced around, laughing and shrieking that LL had tickled him! In that instant, a bond was forged.

Then there was Ms Pix who wasn't terribly keen on children. She viewed them with disdain until the younger boy decided that he was tired of being ignored. He made a point at each visit to sit down with Pix. He patted and stroked her and soon she was laying her head in his lap and rolling over to have her tummy rubbed.

And thus another bond was created between one of our dogs and our grandchildren.

To this day, the twice-weekly visits by the boys are welcomed by the dogs with enormous amounts of enthusiasm. Daisy cuddles with them while they watch TV. Murphee makes a point of consoling either child who might have an injury or is ill. LL will not let them out of her sight and snuggles beside them. Even my part-time old girl, Hailey, adores these kids and, despite
being thunder-phobic, doesn't stir a hair if the thunder rolls when she is with them.

I honestly think any of these dogs, including the not-very-brave LL, would
lay down their lives if necessary for our grandsons . . . . I know for sure
that Angie would have done!

(For those of you who may have a copy of the Starfish Stories 2, both the children are featured on the final page with photos of LL and anecdotes about the deep love LL has for these children and they for her.)