"Dumps on the Loose"

On Sunday, at a lovely barbeque which the in-laws put on for myself and their various assorted kids and grandkids, Dumpie was caught attempting to toss their 20 year old geriatric 'kitty-cat' in their brand new, salt-water swimming pool.

Luckily disaster was averted as I fortunately happened to glance over just as Dumpie was stumbling to the edge of the pool with the large, mostly blind cat, tight in his clutches.  I made it just in the nick of time.

Shortly thereafter Dumpie was successful in tossing a metal, decorative cat, roughly the same size as himself, over their balcony onto the hot tub.  His 'Gramps' was not amused.  A short while later, despite several preemptive warnings, a big red ball also came sailing over the rails, only to land on a beautiful flowering plant.  Oh dear.

The swimming pool was a hit though, and little Egg made me very proud when he tentatively jumped off the 'diving rock' into the scary deep end with only a pair of bright plastic water wings and an obliging uncle waiting to catch him - standing between him and immanent death. Brave little soldier....seems as though all the encouraging applause and courage-bolstering 'shout outs' did the trick and gave him that little bit of extra 'ooomph' to just go for it.

This same behaviour however, had the opposite effect on the Dumps a short while later when a in impromptu 'potty performance' went the way of the dogs.  A lovely state of the art model had been dug out from under the sink upstairs, and brought down outside in the hopes that a certain little someone might be enticed.  At the first sign of Dumps crouching on it we all jumped to our feet and began idiotically clapping and yelling encouragement.

At first humiliated, his expression then changed to one of extreme grumpiness.  Pissed off, he promptly got up off the little white seat, stomped off, and for the rest of the evening the potty lay abandoned in the corner and was not mentioned or even glanced at again.

I suspect there it shall stay for the foreseeable...unloved, unwanted and depressingly pristine.  I continue to spend an absolute fortune on training pants ('training' my arse!) and a great amount of my daily quotient of waking hours on wiping down a dirty bottom.  

Different continent...same deal.  Some things never change...