I think my Mistress might be feeling the pressure. She had the first nightmare she can remember having since she was a child. She wouldn’t tell me all the detail, but I’m guessing what she really needs is a nice holiday, just the two of us.
I was thinking about my work with the Pet Dogs’ Democratic Party and I have realised that moving to a nice quiet country location hasn’t been the best thing for my political activism. There is a certain something about slowing down to match the pace of life that makes campaigning against the big issues seem all a bit pointless. Some would say that it would be hard for me to have slowed down very much, and that may be true, but I have definitely relaxed into a pattern of life that is more about appreciating the wildlife than worrying about the minimum wage for working dogs. I do come into contact with more working dogs than I did in the city, but most of them are too busy loyally working to have time to complain. Perhaps I ought to start campaigning on more environmental and social issues in order to preserve this wonderful countryside. When my Mistress went out the other day she had to swerve to avoid both a squirrel and a hare within the first two mile of her journey. She was a nervous wreck before she’d got as far as the next village. I need to think about what sorts of issues a country dog would get involved in. There must be local things I could protest against. As far as I can tell round here, the sheep and cows are happy in the fields and for the most part dogs don’t have too bad a life at all. Ok, so we still don’t have inside toilets and to be fair we can’t go into the pub, but we can sit outside and there are plenty of places to walk or just lie in the shade. If I’m not careful, this lethargy might lead me into becoming more conservative in my politics. I need something to shake me up.
Alfie Dog with a little help from Rosemary J Kind alfie@alfiedog.me.uk