white doggy

One of our friends gave Abby a Barbie for her birthday.  This particular one was "pet shop barbie" and it came with a mommy dog and three puppies.  Abby hasn't played with the barbie at all - but she has become pretty attached to the dogs.

The dogs have magnets in their noses - so they can pick up the accessories (bones, a ball, etc) that came with the set.  But, lately, Abby has discovered that magnets stick to lots of things.  This is very exciting.  She's been running around the house, sticking the little puppy dogs to various surfaces and then announcing "mom! mom!  This is metal!"  or "daddy, this chair is not made of metal"  She's been adding to her list of things that don't "like" magnets - wood, glass, rubber, carpet, etc.  It's all been a lot of fun for her and fun for us watching her explore.

Yesterday we went shopping at BJ's for our bulk items - Abby brought her dogs, like always.  This time, she said she brought them so that the daddy doggy could sniff and find the things we needed to buy.  It was cute.  Abby was beside herself with excitement when she discovered that the puppy dog stuck to all the shelves in the store, and the cart, and some walls.  She just couldn't get enough of it. :)

I took this picture as Abby was explaining "OK! Daddy-doggy is ready to go sniff for diapers for E.  Let's go!"

Fast forward.

Abby's been spraying her doggies with a water bottle lately to clean them.  Her cleaning streak has been well documented.  She wanted to bring them into the bath with her.  I said daddy/mommy-doggy couldn't go into the bath, because she has a layer of soft fur and it didn't seem like a good idea - but she could bring white-doggy.

Abby and E had their bath and had a lot of fun playing.  I got both girls out and dried.  Abby said she needed to go potty, so while she did that, I went to go get E dressed for bed.

Next thing I know, I hear "MOMMY! AAAHHHH!  WHITE DOGGY! HELP!"

This screaming was accompanied by the sound of the toilet flushing and I knew what had happened.  I ran in, hoping to be able to rescue white-doggy before he was gone, but it was too late.  Kyle, E, Abby and I watched as the toilet finished flushing with no sign of white-doggy.  There was a 2 second pause of silence and then Abby LOST IT.  Cue blood curdling scream.

Kyle took E and I picked up Abby and sat her on the counter and just hugged her.  She moved from panic to despair.  She was silent-sobbing.  Big Gasp of air.  More silent sobbing.  This went on for several minutes until she regained her composure enough to look up at me and say "mommy, can you get him back?"

It actually made me cry too.  She was so sad.  It was as if she'd lost a real friend forever, and I suppose, in a way, she had.  I believe this is her first experience with the permanency of something being gone forever.  It took every ounce of strength not to rush in and promise we'd go buy a new one tomorrow.  That's totally what I wanted to say.  Of course, she brought the idea up on her own eventually - and I gave her a "we'll see"

Abby moved from despair to anger.  She started throwing things off the counter and angerily saying, "but I WANT doggy back!  I do!"

From anger to acceptance.  She started asking me why she dropped him.  I didn't know.  I told her it was an accident, that accidents happen, and I was sorry.  Abby kept apologizing too "Mommy, I'm sorry I dropped doggy"  That made me sad, I tried telling her she didn't need to apologize.

Then she was worried about doggy's fate.  She wanted to know if there were crabs down there.  That's a reference to Finding Nemo - Nemo gets flushed down a toilet/sink and comes out of a pipe where crabs are crawling around.  I told her no crabs, just water.  "Is doggy wet?  Is it dark? Is he scared?"  I had to stifle a laugh when she asked with dead-pan seriousness "maybe the peepee and poopoo can bring my doggy back?"

It took a while, but we got her tucked in and put to bed and somewhat comforted.

This morning, Abby gave us the missing piece of the puzzle - why or how doggy had landed in the toilet in the first place.  She said "daddy, the potty is not metal"  She went on to say "I tried to see if doggy could stick, but he didn't stick.  The potty is not metal and doggy fell down"

She was just experimenting, exploring.

So, it was a little sad, but a lesson learned I suppose.


In memory of white-doggy