I spent yesterday moping and feeling sorry for myself so I wrote to my mistress in the hope that that would make me feel better.
“Dear mum” That’s what I call her at home. “It’s quite fun here, I get to play with a lot of other dogs and horses. When I say play with the horses that is in the sense of I try to get them to chase me and they snort at me in disgust, but I still get some fun out of it. I’m bigger than many of the other dogs so sometimes I have to remember not to be too rough, but most of them are ok. No one rubs my tummy and ears the way you do though, and even if they try, they never do both at the same time. No one gives me my morning Frostie, lunchtime crisp and occasional (and by occasional I mean regular) bits of marzipan. It really isn’t the same without you around. I’ve started to realise you are a big softy and I miss snuggling up to you. Marrying my master won’t make you less snugly will it? You will still spoil me rotten won’t you? I really hope you come home to me soon, I miss you. All my love Alfie”
I didn’t actually feel better when I had written it and then a rottweiler puppy got hold of it and laughed at me for missing my mum. Then he started calling me names because I only have one testicle. I said it wasn’t my fault but that didn’t seem to stop him. So I went and hid in a corner until he had gone on to pick on another dog.
I sat and thought about how much I miss my woods and wondered what Harry and Nicole are doing. I probably haven’t been very fair to them over the last few weeks. Just because I was hurting at the thought of them moving away from me I have carried on almost as though they don’t exist. Somehow cutting them out of my life seemed better than trying to deal with the hurt of missing them. It is only when you can stand back and see things from a different perspective that you realise that maybe the way you are behaving is not only making it worse for yourself but is probably hurting them too. So when I go home I think one of the first things I will do is go and see them and say sorry. It will have to be after having a big cuddle with my mistress and my master though, however important it is to see them I really do need to do that first.