If you buy the old admonition that you shouldn’t call children kids because kids are goats, then Al always has liked kids because she always has favored animals. At one time, she even aspired to becoming a veterinarian.
I swear, there have been times when she would have thrown me under the bus to save an animal. (That’s why I lied to her during a family trip when she was about 5 or 6. Driving in the dark on a two-lane, rural highway, I couldn’t swerve to avoid the raccoon. I SWEAR, I didn’t have time to swerve, and the coon froze like a deer in headlights. When Allison heard the “thump-thump-thump” under the car, she awoke from a slumber in the back seat and said, “What was that?” “It was just a rock in the road,” I said as Annie and Brendan exchanged knowing glances [as older siblings are wont to do]. “Go back to sleep.” Had I told the truth, she’d have tossed me under the van.)
Actually, I even recall the time she did throw somebody under the bus, after a fashion, although it wasn’t me. It occurred shortly after I moved to Florida, after she graduated from high school, lo those many years ago.
A hurricane — I can’t remember which one, there were so many that year — had just raked South Florida, and I called Al back home to regale her with tales of my first experience with that side of Mother Nature.
I told her the tragic story of a group of five adults out walking a dog to survey the damage resulting from the hurricane: They were electrocuted as they walked through water that was electrified by a downed power line.
Without missing a beat, Allison’s only question was: “What happened to the dog?”
That obviously underscores her priorities, and her leanings toward four-footed creatures. More evidence: She lived on a ranch for four years or so, taking care of about 50 horses including her full-time job as a hairstylist. And the horse she leases, Gammon, is one of the great loves of her life.
Al and Gammon.She was devastated when her first dog, Yippers (aptly named because the little feller yapped at everything and everybody), passed into the great beyond of Kibbles and Bits, and her love for her present dog, Rodeo, knows no bounds.
Al's Yippers lives on in doggie heaven, and her heart.As for Rodeo, he's a loyal friend and dedicated sentinel for Allison, often taking up his post on her front porch to watch the world go by as he waits for her to return from work.
Rodeo maintains his vigil at one of his favorite spots, on Allison's front porch.So, in the course of her life, Al’s always preferred to stay an arm’s length from kids. Indeed, she even used to stiffen up when a child came into a room, and got a deer-in-headlights look if it looked like a youngster might touch her.
Until NOW. Aunt Allison is a whole different animal, so to speak, and it’s kind of a triple-A situation: Allison, Amelia, and Avery. When Amelia and Avery are around, she has dears in her headlights.
In fact, she even blows bubbles with Amelia during trips to California.
How cute is THAT, with Al reprising her childhood with niece Amelia?And during her most recent trip, after she’d been gone for a couple of hours, Amelia approached her seriously and grabbed her leg, almost sobbing, as she said, “I missed you sooooooooooo MUCH.”
As for Avery, even though he’s in a phase in which he cries when some people try to hold him, namely Allison and moi, among a few others, Aunt Allison still cuddles the little bugger, as evidenced by this photo of them when we were out for lunch a couple of months back.
Once averse to children, Aunt Al now hugs Avery with a passion.So the daughter who once froze around kids now melts, although she doesn’t always like to admit that.
When I told her I was working on this column about her softening heart as an aunt, she mulled the idea quietly for a few seconds before saying: “Well, OK, but Rodeo’s still my favorite.”
And THAT's OK. (But pictures tell a different story: The kids are at least equal, no?)
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