Most children find a way to tell their grandparents apart. Perhaps one set is Nana and Papa, and one is Grammy and Grampy. Sydney calls my parents MeMe & PopPop. We don't know how she came up with it, but she came up with it on her own and the names stuck.
Laura and I called both of our Grandmothers "Grandma" and both Grandfathers were "Grandpa". It got a little easier once my moms parents moved to Florida, because if we were talking about them, we could say the ones in Florida. Neither set of Grandparents had a last name that was easy for children to pronounce: Primeau (pronounced Premo- long e, long o) and Wager (way grr not wager like a bet). So we found another way to distinguish them.
My mom's sister lived with their parents. When Mom and Dad got engaged, my mom bought a beagle puppy for her sister. (Now you know why I like beagles!) The beagle was named Rusty, and my Aunt had him for 10 or 12 years before he got very sick and had to be euthanized. Rusty was a funny beagle. He would not chase bunny rabbits. He preferred to curl up with them and nap under a tree. Rabbits were not afraid of Rusty. He loved to eat, and my grandparents and Aunt indulged that. He was one of the fattest beagles I've ever seen. He loved ice cream. So they would go for a soft serve ice cream, and everyone would get a cone- including Rusty.
Rusty was a great guard dog. If you left the house and left him alone, he wouldn't let anyone in the house. Not even you, unless you brought him a hamburger. I think he preferred McDonald's hamburgers to Burger King. He liked the hamburgers from one of the fast food places and not the other. When we went out to dinner, no matter where we went, we always had to swing through the drive-thru to get a plain burger for Rusty. I remember that we forgot the burger a couple of times, and he wouldn't let us in the door. We had to go back out and get his burger.
Rusty was protective of my sister and I. If we were napping on the couch (or davenport, as Grandma called it), he curled up on the floor in front of us. We put hats on him, went through purses with him, and of course, fed him. He was our furry friend. We associated Grandma and Grandpa Wager with Rusty, so they became Grandma and Grandpa Rusty.
Dad's parents had dogs too. I remember at one time there were 8 dogs. I assumed they had one dog for each child. There was always a Shep running around. I can't count how many incarnates of Shep they had through the years. Even this past December- when Grandma was in the nursing home, someone had brought her a stuffed dog. She named it Shep. Their dogs were outside dogs, and I don't have any warm memories of them. But I remember the cats!
Grandma Primeau had a soft spot for strays. I think my love of animals must come from her. I hate to see animals in distress. I can't watch the shelter commercials, or the ASPCA commercials. They break my heart. Grandma was like that too. They lived in a rural area, and people were always dropping off cats near Grandma's house. Grandma put out food for the cats. So of course, the cats stayed, and multiplied. I know at one point, Grandma and Grandpa were buying cat food by the 50 lb bags for cats they didn't even own! One day, when I was about 17, I went to visit Grandma & Grandpa in the summer. I drove my mom's old car, which had been handed down to me. The Primeau license plate was gone, but it was replaced by a sticker that said "I brake for Teddy Bears". You knew it was my car. I remember getting out of the car and seeing the cats, and thinking 'I hope no one drives by who recognizes me'. I know that is terrible. My Grandmother had become the crazy cat woman! Their house is built into a hill. There is a deck that covers one side of the house. If you pull into one end of the driveway, you walk up the stairs on the hill to the house. If you come in on the upper level, you can walk right onto the deck. The cat population had been growing for a couple of years at Grandma's. On this particular day, cats were all over the house. They were on every stair leading up the hill. They were all over the deck. And there were even cats walking across the peak of the roof!
It was about a year or two later that Grandpa had had enough of the cats, and the cats were rounded up. The total count was in the 40s or 50s. I don't remember the exact number. I do know that was the end of the cats. Grandpa said 'no more!' .
The cats were how we identified Grandma & Grandpa Primeau. Early on, they became Grandma & Grandpa Meow. And so, we distinguished our Grandparents by their pets- although actually, the pets weren't theirs!
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