Harold

Those of you that have been to our home have had the pleasure of meeting our butler, Harold.

Harold, a gift from Jenny's brother for our apartment when we lived in CA, has been with us since the early days of our marriage, diligently holding our mail day in and day out.

For the last two months, Harold and Bailey have been peacefully coexisting. Or maybe, just maybe, Bailey never really noticed him.

That all changed two nights ago. As we were enjoying a quiet night at home and wrapping up dinner, Bailey spotted Harold out of the corner of her eye. After innocently asking Bailey to wave "hi" to Harold, Bailey LOST it. Instant meltdown. Jenny calmed her down but every time Bailey would look at Harold, she'd wimper and twitch a bit. 

So let me get this right...Bailey has NO PROBLEM with our furry little creature on four legs (Abby, our 14-yr old bichon), who has no concern for personal space and regularly tries to lick/nibble/chew Bailey's fingers, toes, or face. She has no problem with a person in a large bunny costume holding her (Easter pics coming in a future post). But Harold, the 3-ft statue butler, freaks her out. There I go again, trying to rationalize the mind of a 1-yr old.  

My guess is that she just never really noticed Harold before, and my telling her to say "hi" as I do with humans made her think he was a human who had somehow snuck up on her without her noticing.

We were hoping this was a one-time meltdown but it happened again tonight, though the reaction was very delayed.  We'll see what tomorrow brings! Poor Harold...