Push Present

Day 159

It’s essential that today go well.  We’re introducing Spot to the new puppy.  The rescue folks will watch the exchange and decide if the adoption is a go. 

I’m a tad nervous but try and put it into perspective.  It’s two dogs we’re talking about not a Middle East peace summit.  (I don’t think I’ll share this with the rescue folks.  They like us.  Clearly we’ve been on our best behavior and I want them to continue to wear their pretty rose-colored glasses.) 

We bring something with us to the meeting.  Think of it as a push present, a time-honored tradition of showering a new mother with a gift after the labor of “pushing” during childbirth.   

When I was pregnant the first time, my doctor gave November 15 as our due date.  Smack in the middle of the month, we felt confident we’d have a Thanksgiving baby.  Instead we had a Halloween one. 

My water broke four weeks early at my ten-year college reunion.  By the time my two friends and I drove the 40 miles from Granville to Columbus, Chaz had paced a path in the front porch.  The four (or five?) of us headed to the hospital and the fun began.  For the next nine hours the fun continued.  I. entered the world at 7:30 the next morning. 

My husband, the best gift giver ever, asked the nurse to repeat the date.  Twice. 

“Sh#t, sh#t, sh#t,”  he muttered in a wonderful impression of a homeless lunatic. 

At this point, I was more than a little annoyed.  I'd had kind of a night.  What in heavens name had he got to complain about?  Last time I checked, I did the hard part.  "Will you please stop?"  

That’s when he pulled from his pocket a small velvet covered box.  Inside was my push present, a custom-designed ring set with diamonds and blue topaz, the November birthstone.  

“I’ll get it changed,” he said.  “Not a chance,” I laughed.  Years later, I love the ring even more because of the wrong stones.   

Our gift for the puppy’s mom isn’t anything as elaborate as a ring but instead a rawhide bone.  Puppy Pushing?  It counts.  Maybe it counts more since Bella birthed eight kids while I can brag of birthing only one at a time. 

Come on now, eight puppies?  Throw that girl a bone.