Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Kenny The Russet Hound





KENNY THE RUSSET HOUND



Charlotte is going to be a vet when she grows up. She is going to have a big ranch to house all the animals that she wants that I won’t let her have. She wants ferrets, pigs, snakes, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, dogs, cats, pigs, cows, horses, chickens. You name it--she wants it. Every time I buy the dogs stuffed animals to play with, Charlotte rescues them. Her bed is a sea of stuffed animals. She has a clothes basket full of stuffed animals (she doesn’t know it, but we have garbage bags full of stuffed animals that are hers that we don’t have room for packed away in the attic). But more than anything, Charlotte wants a Basset Hound. She is always asking me for one. A stuffed one, yes, she wants the Webkinz basset hound, but more than anything, she wants a real live basset hound. I am the meanest Grammy in the world because I won’t get another dog.
One day a couple of months ago, I was dumping a bag of russet potatoes in a pan to scrub and peel for mashed potatoes. Charlotte came in, squealed, and said, “Oh Grammy, It’s Kenny the russet hound”. She grabbed one of the potatoes, and took off with it. She gets her craft supplies and is busy cutting and gluing. She glues googley eyes on the potato. Next she glues on a little black pom pom nose. Tan felt for ears and tail. I laughed when I saw it, and told Janet to come look at Kenny the russet hound. Charlotte gets that look of barely contained impatience with my slowness, and says, “Well Grammy, after all, it IS a russet potato.”
I have heard artists say they don’t carve an image out of stone (or whatever medium they are working in), but they just “let out” the figure that is captured inside. I have seen artists use stones for animal drawings, but I think this is the first time I have known someone to see the hound in a russet potato. Charlotte is going to be a vet and an artist--and no telling what else that child will be--whatever she sets her mind to be that is for sure!

2 comments:

Eve said...

That is one creative child. I was like that. I grew up to be a grown up playing with mud. I just throw the clay down and if it looks like a little goose girl that is what I make. I get it! : )

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

She is my little gardener too. She always wants to help water and plant seeds. She is kind of stingy with the water, and I have to keep telling her, "More, more!"

I put her on dandelion detail this spring, and she made about $7.oo pulling roots and all! At a quarter a piece, that's a lot of dandelions! My DH was very happy as he battles the dandelions like Mr. MacGregor battles Peter Rabbit.