Needing Someone To Worry About You
by yagrowsoryadies on Sat 30 Sep 2006 06:43 PM PDT  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos
Someone To Worry About Me



Many years ago, my neighbors owned a basset hound with the unlikely name of “Courtney.” She was a wag-the-tail, people-friendly old pooch who seemed most content hanging out with kids and lying on her back getting her ample belly rubbed. With her distinctive physique (we never quite knew if she was sitting down or not) she was the kind of dog that made you smile just looking at her.

So, last week, when I went looking for a dog for our Children’s Village, the first place I looked was the Basset Hound rescue website. I wanted a clone for the loveable dog I had known when I was a young man. Voila! Within a matter of days, the folks at Northern California Basset Hound Rescue found me a six-year-old female named “Penny.” It seemed fitting somehow that this rescue dog should find a home in a village for neglected and abused kids.

Penny’s affect on our little village has been almost magical. Last night I’m fixing dinner for myself when I hear this timid knock on my back door. Standing there is one of our littlest guys, six years old with a missing front tooth. “Grandpa Hank, can Penny come out and play at our house?” So I hand him the leash and off he goes to his home just across the driveway. I’m not sure which of the two is happier.

The kids vie for the job of taking Penny for her walks. (The realist in me knows that the kids, being kids, won’t always be eager to walk Penny or clean up her business but what the hey, I’ll take the help when I can find it.) What is important now is that a bunch of needy kids have a funny looking, four-footed companion who both tickles their funny bone and gives them unquestioning and unconditional love.

Just one week after acquiring our pooch, she got loose in the neighborhood. Panic time. Where is Penny? Kids, parents and grandparents all took off to find her. The concern was tangible. The little guy with the missing front tooth asked me “Grandpa Hank, are you worried?” I told him “Yes, I am very worried.” Two minutes later, one of our little girls, the anxiety showing in her young face, repeated, “Grandpa Hank, are you worried?” “Yes, honey. I am worried. I want Penny back home.”

Well, I’m happy to report that we found her just about a block away from our house. We all felt relief. But to me, even more important than finding a little lost dog, was gaining a new understanding of what our kids are going through It was no accident that several of our kids asked me if I was worried. They needed to know because abused and neglected kids wonder if they are important enough for anyone to worry about them.
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What they were really asking is do we parents and grandparents at the village worry about them. It’s a pretty basic human need when you stop to reflect upon it. Kids (and we adults, too) need to know that there is someone in our lives who will worry about us, someone who cares enough to be concerned. Kids who live in our village who have been traumatized in their young lives already know what it’s like not to have someone “worrying about them.” They want to know that this time it will be different.

Hank Mattimore's essays are in book form under the title "Life's A Growin Thing." You can ordet them on Amazon or (more cheaply) directly through the author for $10 (tax and postage incl) Contact Hank at hmattimore@yahoo.com
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