{"id":2339,"date":"2006-12-11T15:32:33","date_gmt":"2006-12-11T23:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mortaine.com\/blog\/fiction\/a-dogs-world\/"},"modified":"2006-12-11T15:32:33","modified_gmt":"2006-12-11T23:32:33","slug":"a-dogs-world","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mortaine.com\/blog\/fiction\/a-dogs-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dog’s World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephanie Cottrell Bryant<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

April 22, 2000<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\tA Dog’s World<\/font><\/h1>\n

\n

\nWow, the humans are all staring at the flashing-movie-box and I think I‘<\/font>m bored or hungry or something, but they‘<\/font>re not paying any attention to me, so I‘<\/font>ve got to make them pay attention by picking up my ball and bouncing it around and chasing it around the house, but I‘<\/font>d better watch my tail ><\/font>cause I just spilled something and now She‘<\/font>s yelling at me, beautiful and angry at the same time, so I chase the ball down the hallway for Her, and come back with it, and chase it again and again and again, the ball tastes funny in my mouth, and I wonder if they‘<\/font>re paying attention now, but it looks like they‘<\/font>ve gone back to watching the movie-box, and even She is watching it now, so I turn around a few times, sniffing my tail because that‘<\/font>s fun, and then my toe hurts for a second, and now I‘<\/font>m chasing the ball again, which is also fun, and then She‘<\/font>s paying a little more attention to me because I‘<\/font>m such a goofball (she says), but I think She loves me anyway, because She‘<\/font>s always laughing when I act like this, only suddenly now she‘<\/font>s not laughing, and I can smell something different, but I think maybe it‘<\/font>s just Her, because She smells different from anyone else, always, but then she takes me by the halter and leads me into the Other Room.<\/p>\n

\n****<\/p>\n

\nI am an old dog. I am thirteen years old. That makes me old.<\/p>\n

The younger one, Hammer, is only nine. That makes him, old, too. Not that you‘<\/font>d know it. He bounces around here like a puppy. He‘<\/font>s doing it now. Showoff.<\/p>\n

I am an old dog. Old dogs do old-dog things. For myself, I like to rest. I like to be petted. My Lady is a wonderful dog-petter. She feeds all of us. She also cleans up for us. Very nice woman, is My Lady. Her mate is nice, too.<\/p>\n

My Lady is watching the television. She has friends over– they \twatch together. I think she‘<\/font>s \tlonely sometimes. She‘<\/font>s \talways inviting people for dinner, movies. The lights are low. I \trelax in the low light.<\/p>\n

She‘<\/font>s late with dinner, \tof course. She‘<\/font>s always \tlate with dinner. It‘<\/font>s a \thabit of hers, being late. I love her anyway. She keeps Hammer from \teating my food.<\/p>\n

I relax into my pillow. Thirteen years– I am good at resting. \tI‘<\/font>ve had lots of practice. \tI teach the cat how to nap. He‘<\/font>s \ta terrible student, though. Too high-strung.<\/p>\n

Hammer has hurt himself. He‘<\/font>s \tsuch a fool. There‘<\/font>s a lot \tof blood. He‘<\/font>s tracking it \tall over the carpet. I wait for My Lady to get mad. But she doesn‘<\/font>t. \tIn fact, she doesn‘<\/font>t notice at first. After a while, she sees the blood. She jumps up and grabs his halter. They go into the kitchen. I worriedly sniff the carpet. The humans worriedly knock on the door. I wonder if Hammer is all right. I wonder if My Lady is all right.<\/p>\n

I wonder if she‘<\/font>s \tgiving him dinner.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephanie Cottrell Bryant April 22, 2000 A Dog’s World Wow, the humans are all staring at the flashing-movie-box and I think I‘m bored or hungry or something, but they‘re not paying any attention to me, so I‘ve got to make them pay attention by picking up my ball and bouncing it around and chasing it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2336,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2339","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nA Dog's World - Games, Crafts, and Thoughts from Mortaine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mortaine.com\/blog\/fiction\/a-dogs-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Dog's World - 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