Mr. BoJangles Has A Story To Tell

 Mr. BoJangles here. It has been a strange time here on my mountainside. It causes me to ponder things I don't understand. Mom told Dad she was dizzy. I had to consult with Toni Louise. She is much older than me. You can tell when you look at her face, it is turning white. But I now know what dizzy means.

At first Dad just grunted and told her to sit down. She did, but I don't think it was because Dad told her to, as she was already in the act of sitting. She got up soon enough to do her chores, or that is what she said. She filled both the washing and drying machines and then she washed the dishes while she made dinner ..... but when dinner was done she didn't want to eat.

She scooped up Eddie and stumbled to the bedroom. I laughed because I thought she was just playing with us dogs, but Eddie told me later the she almost fell down and he was in her arms! He was scared. The next day, she was still dizzy. When Dad asked how she felt, she told him she was just a dizzy broad. I am still trying to figure that one out.

For over a week, Mom has stayed inside with us dogs. I wondered if she forgot about all her plants. She was still stumbling around and said her head was hurting. Dad told her she should call the doctor and make an appointment. When Dad is sick she calls his doctor and makes his appointments. I asked Eddie about that and he said Dad was just basically lazy and not to worry about it.

When the time came for her to go to the doctor, Dad got up very early to drive her. "Oh no," I said to Toni, "Did she forget how to drive?" Toni said for me to go think about it, that my question did not deserve an answer. Whatever that means. But when I did think about it, I supposed she might drive the way she walked and that would not be good!

She has pills to take to make her not be dizzy, but she told Dad the pills were awful and made her feel worse than being dizzy does. So, she stopped taking them. But that was just today that she decided that. 

She can't bend over to pick stuff up!! You won't believe this next part, but Dad is taking care of Mom! Everytime she drops something, he picks it up. Eddie is amused at this turn of events. We are all used to Mom taking care of Dad. It is like the world has turned upside down!

Dad was gone to take the trash to the dump. He asked Mom if she wanted anything while he was out and she assured him that she needed nothing from the dump. But, after he left, she needed the remote to the TV. 

I knew where it was. It was under the sofa she was sitting on. I tried to push it out for her to reach, but it got stuck behind the leg. I don't know if she has ever told anyone, but she talks to us dogs. Not just when we are alone, either. So she was telling Eddie that she wanted the remote and wished he had hands to grab it with. Us dogs grab things with our mouths. This sometimes ruins the things we grab. Sometimes with slobber, sometimes with teeth. 

She had stopped talking and Toni and I were about the business of positioning ourselves behind Dad's recliner to take a little snooze. Then we heard Eddie yelp at Mom. He was saying, "Are you okay?" to Mom. I got up to see what the commotion was about and saw that Mom was sitting on the floor with her back to the couch.

"How did this happen?" I asked Eddie. He said he thought she might have done it on purpose. Next thing we knew she had flipped over and was laying on her belly laughing. Laughing is good, Mom likes to laugh a lot. She put her face on the floor to look under the sofa.

"There it is!" she said to us dogs, "Just like I thought." Then she reached her arm under the sofa, but try though she might, she just couldn't reach it. "Well crap on a cracker!" she said. She says this alot, usually when things aren't going right. None of us dogs know why. Then she asked herself where she had put that back scratcher. She thought for a minute and then looked at Eddie and told him it was on the kitchen counter. I ran to the kitchen and jumped as high as I could. I saw it! I just couldn't grab it.

This is when Mom started trying to get up. She was sliding around on the floor and she could not get her feet underneath her. Then she lay her head down again and that's when she saw Toni Louise, still behind the recliner watching her. Toni said it startled her to see Mom's eyes at the same level as hers. Mom and Toni laughed and laughed.

Then Mom took her socks off and saw Dad's cane by his chair. She grabbed the cane and snagged the remote with it. "I got it!!" she said and we all cheered. It took Mom a little longer to get up. She tried to use the recliner, but it slid on the floor, so she opened the door and finally made it to her feet! We all cheered again and Mom said she was exhausted, so we all took a nap.