It’s official I’m bottom of the pecking order in our pack. You wouldn’t think a 30kg dog could be outvoted by so many smaller animals, but the problem is that I’m a pacifist. Anyway, this morning while we were in the utility Aristotle found a bone that my Mistress had been saving for a special occasion. I should just clarify, she was saving it for one of us and not for herself! Ari decided that today was a special occasion so he trotted off with it and kept himself amused for most of the morning – well most of the day to be honest but for the morning he was completely engrossed. Mid-morning I wandered across, after he’d already had about 3 hours of solid gnawing and asked, very politely, if I might have just a tiny chance of a nibble. Sadly, he very firmly said no, so that’s why I sat watching and spent my day suffering from bone envy. It’s a poor show when a puppy won’t share his bone with his elders. Fortunately he went for a nap late afternoon and I got a short chance then. Not before time, he’d had most of the middle out of it by then, but it was still satisfying.
I was reading a story earlier about an animal who got lost. The full horror of not putting a name tag on your pet hit me. It’s a dreadful state of affairs when a pet gets lost and can’t get home, but to be faced with a complete change of identity as well. Can you imagine? There you are being taken in by a stranger and they don’t even know your first name. You can’t tell them as they don’t understand what you are saying so they call you something completely different. There you are ‘Here, Rex’ and you bark back, ‘The name’s Alfie’ and every time they take no notice and keep calling you Rex. Anyway, people, tag your pets. Whether it’s a rabbit a ferret a hamster of a pot- bellied pig, please have the decency to make sure other humans can know what his name is. I’m thinking of having my name tattooed on my left buttock to be on the safe side.
Alfie Dog with a little help from Rosemary J Kind alfie@alfiedog.me.uk
Alfie’s Diary – the Book is available at Amazon UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00583ZGSA
You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com