My family hadn’t been gone long, at least it didn’t seem long though, I have to admit, a nap never seems long unless you wake up with your joints stiff. My joints don’t get stiffThat doesn’t happen so much any more. It may have something to do with , not since they started feeding me the scoops of peanut butter they give me with the crunchy bitter pill thing in the center. Anyway,But, it didn’t seem to be a long trip. And they all went together, even though I’m pretty sure it wasn’t church because for churchthey didn’t they get all dressed up, and leave right after they ate eat breakfast. It isn’t often they all go together. I wondered where they were going, all together like that.
I heard the car come down our street., tThere’s a small hill before our house, so the sound comes suddenly, like it just got turned on or something, after they crest the hill. Of course, then the garage door opened and the car rolled in – all pretty normal stuff.
Even taking me outside was normal, in a way, because the first thing the grown-ups do when they get home is take me outside. Sometimes Daniel and Thomas forget, but Mom and Dad always remember. Not to the back yard, though, and that was confusing. DadMom opened the door and called me with him to the front yard. Then Mom and Dad called me over, there’s a new smell I thought, to him her in the front yard. As soon as I got near mom, dad told me to and made me lie down. “Down,” he said. The new smell was very interesting and I wanted to track it downfind out where it was coming from.. “Down,” Dad commanded and he raised his right arm. When he raises his arm, his voice gets deep and gruff. so I knew he was serious,. Sso I lay down on the grass, which was soft and rich smelling from all the feet crunching on it. It was hard not to wriggle, because my nose wanted to taste the smell and it seemed to be coming from somewhere up high, near mom, maybe.
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I wasn’t wriggling very much when mom knelt down with something small and warm and fragrant in her arms. As soon as I raised my nose to get a snoutfull, Dad growled “down” again and the little warm thing scrambled even further away, whimpering. My nose was so hungry for the smell I could hardly stay still. My front paws were glued to the grass, I kept thinking about them because Dad’s grumbly voiced echoed in my ears, but my tail kept swinging so hard that my back half sometimes snuck off the ground. You’d think the stiffness would help keep me still, but somehow it doesn’t work that way.
Next thing I knew, Mom was sitting on the grass beside me and my nose could just reach the richest part of the warm smell. Buttery almost, or like really velvety fritos. (I don’t get many fritos, but one makes it to the floor occasionally.) I was just getting a good sniff when dad pushed my head down and held me still. The small thing, Maxie, they called it, was held next to me and I could hear little snuffle noises as mom said, “See, Maxie, this is Tynie. He’s a nice old dog. (what deprecating thing, mildly insulting thing can Mom say?)”
Not fair, I thought, as a I tried to move my head to get a quick whiff of this Maxie thing. But Dad was too fast for me and pushed my head away from it, her, I think. The scent was more baby than feminine, but there was a decided pinkness to the aroma.
That was it, though. Next thing I knew we had gone in the house and I had followed Thomas into the laundry room. Two seconds later I heard the door click shut and I was alone with the two clothes-eating, rumbling metal monsters that live in the smallest room in the house. The Maxie thing was with MY family in MY dining room. I could hear them.
The worst of it was that after being let out of the laundry room for a little while, I discovered that the sleeping arrangements had been changed. Instead of sleeping on the floor in Daniel’s room, like usual, I was again in the laundry room, me and the Maxie. The Maxie wasn’t whimpering anymore. She was squalling. I found it hard to believe that that much noise could come out of an object that puny. Clearly the maxie was very spoiled.
I have gotten used to the fact that Daniel doesn’t sleep on the floor with me anymore. The best, of course, was when Thomas and Daniel both slept on the floor with me. We had some very comfy-cozy sleeps together. I am not a puppy any more, and so I learned to accept sleeping in Daniel's room without them beside me. He's there in the bed, I keep reminding myself. But, to be left in the laundry room with the maxie seems cruel and unusual punishment for wanting to get a little snoutfull of new smell.
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