Adventures of Grandma Dee

Today capped three days of excitement, frustration and laughter that I want to share with you.

A client and his partner live in the UTC area and have two Shi-Tzus, Lucy and Ethel. They were my first clients and have been with me ever since. The dogs’ owner called me and arranged for me to make midday visits to take the girls out for a breather and to relieve themselves three days in a row.

Their apartment is on the second floor. When I arrived on the first day (Tuesday), I found the stairs torn up and no landing. There was no one around and no way to get into the apartment. I just knew the dogs were waiting for me. I was frantic. I called their owner and had to leave a message. While waiting for him to return my call, I went through all types of scenarios in my head: Could I find a ladder to get in through their patio? If so, how would I get the girls down – and more troublesome, how would I get them back up?

I finally left without being able to get to the dogs. I was so frustrated!

The owner did call me back – after I got home. He had been in a long business meeting and had just picked up my message. When I explained what I had run into, he was furious. The HOA was supposed to give him plenty of notice when they planned to repair the stairs. But, they hadn’t notified him. He called them and gave them a piece of his mind. Of course, everyone was pointing fingers at everyone else; no one wanted to take responsibility for the screw-up, but they promised to have a fix in place by the time I was scheduled to be there on Wednesday.

The next day, I arrived to find a sturdy plywood platform where the landing should be and was able to get into the apartment and take the girls for their outing. I reported to the owner and we were both relieved and thought the worst was over.

Today (Thursday) I arrived to find fresh cement had been poured for the landing. No way to get past it to get to the girls. Again. Before I could call the owner, one of the workers came over and we talked about the problem. He told me to go ahead and use the landing, but try to step on it as little as possible. I went up the stairs and looked to see how I could make it from one stairs riser, around the landing to the next riser. I knew if I tried, I would land on my butt right in the middle of their perfectly poured cement. I did the best I could and made it into the apartment where I was greeted enthusiastically by the dogs.

I put their leashes on, and thought about how I could get them past the wet cement. I could see myself trying to wash it off their feet. But, when I got to the landing, the worker called up to me to hand the dogs over the banister to them. He had gone to get help and the two of them each took a dog and held them for me until I could get down the stairs.

The worker asked how long I would be gone with the dogs. I told him and he agreed to wait until I got back before re-troweling the surface. The girls did their business and we went back to the apartment. No one there to help me lift them over the banister – and they had re-troweled the cement. I went to look for the workers and found no one. But, when I got back to the stairs they were waiting for me.

They again asked me to swing around from one riser to the other. I informed them that I was not as young as I once was and they really did not want to see me try that. So, I did the best I could to leave as few tracks as possible in the goop. They handed the dogs up to me and we made it back into the apartment with no further delays.

When I got back to the car I called the dogs’ owner to bring him up-to-date. We laughed about it and he suggested I write about the “Days in the Life of Grandma Dee” for my blog. We agreed that this would be remembered by both of us for a long, long time.

You know the saying, “All’s well that ends well.” This adventure did end well.