Ups and Downs

You know, I had kind of a bad night. When it was very very dark out and Mom and Dad were already asleep, I got real thirsty. I made my little mew. No movement. Mew. Still as stones. Mew. Finally, Mommy rolled over and sat up. I told her with my eyes I wanted down off the bed, so she lifted me onto the floor, and I padded downstairs to my water bowl. Trouble was, when I got back upstairs, my parents were just two big blue boulders again. I didn’t think the mewing would wake them this time, and I am too polite to bark unless I have to go potty, and I didn’t have to go potty, so I slunk over to a corner of the hard floor to sleep all by myself. A few hours later when it was still black black black outside, the boulders budged a bit, so I made my move toward Mom’s side. Mew. Whew, she heard me. She cuddled me and put me back in my special soft spot on the bed. I tried to lick her face, but she fell asleep right away, so I fell asleep right away too.

Then morning came. And I got to go for a walk! And it was a long one! And it was in the prairie! Oh, the smells in the prairie are grand. I was a good boy and stayed on the path. I trotted right next to Mommy, and she sped along, and my ears blew in the breeze I made, and I didn’t get hot or tired or anything. Sometimes a big brown curly leaf sat there right in my path. Sure it was a frog, I’d rush over to stick my nose in its face, but then it was just a leaf, and leaves don’t have faces, I am learning over and over and over again.

We met a light-brown dog named Chloé. I sniffed her nose to nose. But she was big and kept charging me, so I stood up on my back legs and put my face right into hers. She shook me off and charged me again. Time to trot on …

Back home after eating breakfast and checking the patio for chipmunks, I got bored so I ate a piece of paper I found on the kitchen floor. My mistake was I didn’t eat all of the paper. I bet Mom never would have known that little paper was gone. When she found the slimy, slick pieces I left on the rug though, she held them up and said “no-no.” I sulked a little after the scolding. I like to obey but sometimes I’m curious and bored too. Sigh. Well, my tummy didn’t make squirty noises from the paper, and pretty soon, Mom came over to pet me.

In the afternoon, Mom went to the post office without me, her faithful post office car companion. How could she? But when she came home, her feet were all springy, and she snapped on my leash, and away we went, skipping down the alley. Well, she skipped—I galloped. And after supper, Dad gave me a new kind of treat AND took me for a walk in the dark.

Good thing I didn’t get all doomed out by my disappointments today, because some dandy doggie delights happened too.