Extreme 'Rosario'

Prior to the holidays, we had Merry Maids come to clean the house. They have helped us before and the same team arrived to work on our house. They started downstairs and one came upstairs to begin the cleaning efforts in the guest bathroom.

I moved Blake from my office into our bedroom, a practice that we had used before, and let both maids know that I would move him again once they needed to start in the master suite. As I went to the linen closet to gather the clean sheets for the guest room, I heard a scream. I ran to the stairs in time to see 'Rosario' (not her real name) hop over the banister and plummet to the first floor. Sasha had apparently let Blake out of our room and 'Rosario' had freaked out (I use the term 'freaked out' because who jumps over a second story banister when they see a dog?) You might be thinking that Blake was behaving agressively, however when I got to the banister, Blake was standing just outside our door looking glad that he had finally been freed and wondering why this crazy woman had hopped over his banister. No barking ... no growling .. just sleepy "I've just awoken from a long winter's nap" Blake.

I couldn't believe what I had just seen! I've seen shows where people fall like this and they break their necks and die so I wasn't looking forward to what kind of CPR / First Aid was going to be needed to hande this situation. And, yes, I have been CPR / First Aid certified but I don't remember a section called "dealing with broken necks from falling two stories". Unlike the TV shows, no one had pushed her and there wasn't a loose banister railing that gave way while she ascended the stairs. No, she had willingly JUMPED over the banister railing, hitting our antique radio and a Christmas carousel on her way down to the first floor.

I ran down where she was found rubbing her knee. I offered her first aid, which she refused, and I asked if she was all right. She said she was. I suggested that we ice her knee while she propped it up, she refused. Ibuprofen? No. During the course of the next thirty minutes where she continued to work and I continued to believe that she really wasn't all right, (Lord , she had just gone from the top of our house to the bottom ... the hard way) I called Merry Maids to report 'the incident'. The Merry Maids 'police' showed up about ten minutes later to haul 'Rosario' off to the emergency room to get her looked over. Amazingly, she came out of the incident with some bruises, a sprained knee and two days of perscribed bed rest. Wow.

I will admit to you that after thinking and re-thinking this incident, there just aren't many things that would make me leap to the first floor of our house from our banister. I can think of fire? (but even then I might have stepped over the railing and edged my way down), mass murderer? (I think that if his weapon choice needed close proximity, running down the stairs out the door or into a room would've been a better choice), snake? (no, I wouldn't want to turn my back on him. Bad enough that he'd be in my house and bite me, but to have him bite me in the bunky as I ran away would be the worse). Hmmm ... so basically, fire, is the only reason I could think of that might warrent such an extreme maneuver.