Musing on Tebow turning two. Or is he 14?
Tebow.
Two years ago today you came into the world.
The runt of the litter you were always number one in our hearts.
A Christmas Eve run to Midvale, Georgia brought all smelly, dear 65 pounds of you into our lives and into our house.
Well, you weren’t 65 pounds the day we got you.
No. You were a bitty, black, furry lump.
Our two younger children had never had a dog before. Soon after the excitement of finding a puppy under the tree wore thin, they were unimpressed.
I told them to just wait. A good dog is the greatest thing in the world.
But even with the greatest thing in the world you have to overlook look some Tebowisms.
* A love for chewing up pencils and leaving the bitty wooden shards on the floor. Just after I’ve vacuumed. (How does he find them? I can never find a pencil when I need one.)
* Love of running. Tebow dear, you’ve really gotten in too good a shape. I feel like I’m running behind an Iditarod-caliber wolf straight out of a Jack London-Erma Bombeck sports romance novel.
* Love of sleeping on my bed after your run. You act quite bothered when I have to move you to make up the bed.
* You always want to believe that everyone is okay – but your bark gives the stranger who’s not fair warning.
* And I love the way you lay your head on my shoulder just like a child who loves his mummy very much when I get a chance to lie on the bed for a moment. The bed you have been on since I placed the last pillow back in place.
* * *
Tonight when we were giving Tebow his cake, I asked his pack,
What do you love about Tebow?
Joe, 8 years. “He’s warm.”
Dad. “Seriously? I love that he’s not a twin.”
(Actually, he was an octuplet, Dad. So there. )
Hannah Kate, 10. “I love everything.”
Jake, a very grumpy high school senior at this second. “He doesn’t really annoy me too much.”
No, with the exception of your black fur on the white bathroom tile (and stepping barefooted on chewed pencil bits) you don’t annoy me much.
You are a very dear soul. Happy Birthday.
What do you do for the pet in your life on his special day?
