all in a day's work… » brian sprayberry

This is a test. It’s ONLY a test.

It seems like every day I came home from work my wife told me that our son, Luke, had bitten someone at daycare. He was in the 1 year old room (he is 14 months) and he is one of the youngest of the 10-12 kids in the room. Apparently they’ve been having to keep one teacher assigned to him to keep him from eating the other kids in the room. I am not sure why he has been biting but while it was kind of funny at first, now that he is drawing blood and about to be kicked out, it’s not so funny any more.

I’ve taken him to his doctor who informed me that it is not out of the ordinary for this to be happening. I’ve talked to his teachers and the daycare director to see what can be done. It seems, not so much can be done other than to wait this phase of development out. Because, you know, when your son is knawing on the limbs and digits (and sometimes the face) of other children, you should just ignore it till it goes away apparently.

Fast forward to last Friday, I get a call from the daycare saying that Luke had bitten someone again and that my wife and I were going to need to find other accommodations for our little cannibal. At first I thought, you don’t want my son here, no problem – there are plenty of places that will enjoy a parent that pays tuition on time every month and never complains about anything. Then I got to thinking, if he really is a mini Hanibal Lecter, he is probably going to get kicked out his next daycare too. Do we really want to leave a trail of burned daycare bridges all over town? Probably not.

My wife and I spent the weekend trying to find someone that can meet our freakishly demanding list of criteria but doesn’t mind making less than minimum wage while doing it. Sure, I know we live in South Texas and there are literally millions of people in this area that would love to make a nice little undocumented income but I am not to keen on dropping my blond haired, blue eyed son off at someone’s house on my way to work in the morning only to have him carted off to Mexico to work in some slave trade by lunch time. See what I mean about freakishly demanding criteria? Number one on the list, no selling our son on the black market.

So, we’re researching our options – hoping that this decision won’t scar him for life. I just don’t know how anyone could look at that face and want to kick him out of their stupid little daycare. It’s not like he failed a drug test or anything… yet…

So, there was this half marathon in Maryland earlier this year. No one told one of the participants that this was a ‘humans only’ event. Apparently a dog, Dozer, had the urge to do a little running himself. Rumor has it that Dozer jumped into the fray somewhere around the 5 mile mark and completed at least 7 miles of the 13 mile course.

Maryland Half Marathon co-founder Jon Sevel said many runners spotted Dozer in various places on the course, at times lapping up water from cups at rest areas, but nobody realized the dog was running solo. After running the final seven miles or so of the event, Dozer found his own way home Monday morning. He’s in good health after a precautionary trip to the vet and he received a medal from race organizers on Thursday.

“This is a very sweet dog,” said University of Maryland Medical Center spokeswoman Karen Warmkessel. “When I saw him today, he looked great. He was really active, and now he’s raising money for cancer research.”

To that point, Dozer now has his own runner’s page on the Maryland Half Marathon website, where fans can make a donation to the UM Greenebaum Cancer Center.

“At the very least, Dozer will have his own bib number — K9,” said Sevel. “We will definitely have him involved.”