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The garden story *** any resemblance with living persons is absolutely deliberate *** Mr and Mrs T. kept asserting: “Having a dog in a condo, it’s sheer cruelty, a dog needs a garden to unwind.” So they did wait until they had a nice house with a nice garden, before giving in to the children’s entreaties. They bought a dog, a lab, everyone says labs are so smart! On arrival, Fisher was a little fur ball, big-pawed and so sweet. First, life was a dream, every member of the family would lavish attention on « Fifi » Children would show Fifi around, to all their buddies, and that meant many outings. Fifi would give a paw, and exhibit all his skills. On Sundays, the whole family would go for long walks in a parc. Then, on evenings, Fifi dozed, satiated and blissfully happy, watching his humans out of the corner of his eye. But soon, Mrs T decided that muddy paw prints did not make a good impression in her living room, and anyhow “dog place is outside, and he has got the whole garden to unwind”. So Fisher had his rug moved to the garage. That was it with sweet evenings within the pack, locked was the door. Children have grown up… now, they prefer their video games to walks in the park, but, fortunately, “the dog has the whole garden to unwind”. There is not much room left in their lives for Fisher (no one ever calls him Fifi, now). Days go by but Fisher knows what tomorrow holds. On mornings, the busy family rushes, someone shouts “did any one give the dog his food?”… and Fisher finds himself back alone, with his rug stinking out with exhaust pipe gas. The garden ? He knows every single blade of grass, like a book read a thousand times… There’s only one fun time in his life, that’s when the postman comes. Day after day, Fisher wins, and puts to flights this intruder who never ever succeeded to break into! Fisher is very proud of his job, he is protecting the territory. The postman goes always, griping “nasty mutt”, this surely means he admits he is defeated. Fisher gnaws at an old wood stick… then goes round and round in circles, he waits, he is always waiting, he does not know what, he can’t remember what he is waiting for. He used to thrill with expectation, children would come back from school, and play, and pet, and belly rub. Nowadays, they hardly utter “hi doggie!” in their hurry to flop down in front of the TV. Fisher sees Mr and Mrs T just as long as parking the car takes them… This morning, Fisher had the opportunity, the one he was not even dreaming of, the gate was not correctly closed. Fisher wanders off, Fisher revels in scents, noises, emotions, discoveries. Fisher feels restored to life! And Mr and Mrs T. wonder why Fisher ran away from home, though “he had the whole garden to unwind”……. |
Miam Miam!
What
are you feeding your pets?
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