Do YOU love any turtles?

"Do you like this card with the turtle?" I asked my grandmother yesterday as I picked the card up off of her bedside table. 

I'd sent it to her earlier in the week. She studied it for a moment. 

"It is a nice card," she finally concluded. "But who can really love a turtle?"

I guess it went over better than the owl cards. I'd sent her two or three of those before she told me she thinks owls are creepy. 

Even better was the moment my grandmother looked at the dog lying on the carpet and solemnly declared, "The dog is dead." 

"It is not dead," I told her. "It is sleeping."

"But I don't see it breathing!"

"I can. See that tuft of fur there, rising and falling?" 

She really does love the dog, and she watched it carefully for a few minutes, just to make sure it was still alive. 

But best of all was the moment, as I was leaving, when my grandmother held my hand and told me to have many children and a full life. I love her, and I know she loves me even more than she loves the dog (though only the dog is allowed to lap up the last of her sweet coffee straight from the cup).