Lesson Seven - First Take

Cache – Lesson Seven



         A voice called out, “Take care of the house, Robbie.  I won’t be gone long.”  A door slammed and a gate banged shut.  Robert James was alone in the dark hallway. 

He didn’t like the dark.  He didn’t like lots of stuff—but that was okay, he was the baby.  Or he had been until last month.  Now a three and half pound puppy was the baby.  And there was his still older sister, Aggie—or Agatha Lynne—as she liked to be called, to be placated.

In fact, if he didn’t go let her out of her crate, she was liable to go off on him.  But, she did that several times a day anyway.  Still…  It was a little early in the day for him to have to face her snarling and slathering—gums rolled back to show her ‘shark-face’.

He trotted into the bedroom and stood before her crate.  “Hurry up!” she growled, “I want out.”

“I’m not at all sure I should.  She said she wouldn’t be long.” 

“She always tells you that, you moron.  Now let me out!”

He spread his jaws wide and grabbed at the spring action release on the crate door.  This wasn’t easy, since he did have the teensiest little bit of an under bite problem.  But, this wasn’t his first time at the rodeo.

It had taken weeks, but he’d figured it out.  And, he wasn’t a moron.  Aggie was always saying mean stuff like that.  He caught both sides of the spring latch, bit down and pulled.  The door swung open and Aggie rushed passed him.

He followed, but he took his time.  After all, it was not hard to figure out where she was going.  Where she went every chance she got—straight to the garbage can in the kitchen.  It was the garbage trolling, of course, that was the reason for her incarceration, in the first place. 

As predicted, he found her ass-over-teacup in the trash.  He sat down and watched her emerge with a wet coffee filter.  “Why do you do that?” he asked.  “I mean, it’s not like you enjoy eating old coffee grounds.  Do you?”

She ran her tongue over her teeth and spat out a few grounds.  “No.  But they put the grounds on top of the good stuff—when there is good stuff.”  She went over to the water bowl, placed a paw in it and helped herself to a long drink.  He laughed to himself as she sniffed around hopefully searching for the odd piece of kibble she might have missed the night before. 

She never found any, because she didn’t leave any—ever.  She was a loco. . . no, that wasn’t right.  He’d seen a program on the Animal Planet about some kind of bug that ate everything.  It had made him think of his dear sister.  Only he would never tell her that.

“So, what’s on for the day?” he asked.  He knew better than to make any suggestions of his own.  And, he didn’t really care anyway.  Aggie might make fun of him, but he was pretty happy just being himself. 

“What’s today. . .Wednesday?  That means Daddy is working on the mountain and Jennie’s home alone too,” she said over her shoulder as she headed back to the living room, her nails clicking on the tiles. 

He watched as she jumped into the chair—or tried to.  It took her several attempts, but she finally made it, once she got a little momentum going.  Silently, he shook his head.  She really was getting a bit wide in the rear axle.  She was almost as bad as Jennie—but she was half Jennie’s age.  Jennie was the pack’s matriarch—a fox terrier to be revered and respected.  Aggie just had more than a little ‘junk in the trunk’.

         She turned around several times and settled down.  Then she knocked the cordless phone off the charger, picked up a pencil and poked #2 on speed dial.  Jennie answered on the third ring. 

Once it was clear that David was gone—which meant those two would be on the phone for an hour, he slipped through the doggie door.  He took care of a few personal needs and then went to his corner and surveyed his toys.

He was forced to do this at least every day—now that the Peanut, as they referred to her, had arrived.  She did not seem to understand that the toys were his responsibility.  She not only had chewed on a few toys, without asking him—but she had toys of her own.  Toys she was not sharing with them.  Robbie considered himself a mellow dog—but this really did get his collar in a twist. 

After a quick review to assure himself that all the toys were accounted for he went back inside to sit in front of the Peanut’s crate.  He liked her.  She was feisty, without the ‘Jaw-like quality his sister exhibited.  Her crate was actually easier to open, but perhaps not the wisest thing to do.  Aggie liked to think ‘she’ made all the decisions.  But he didn’t mind keeping her company. 

To his chagrin, she was sound asleep.  He would be just setting himself up for razzing if Aggie found him sitting there, watching Pea sleep, so with a certain amount of reluctance, he walked back to the living room.  Aggie was still on the phone, but she’d booted up the computer and appeared to be surfing for something.

She seemed very focused on whatever she was looking for, and he took the opportunity to snag the TV remote and his own pencil.  Mommy always left the TV on.  He liked TV—especially Animal Planet and National Geographic channel.  But he’d watch pretty much anything. 

The girls (Jennie, Aggie and he supposed now the Peanut) liked old movies.  Aggie and Jennie would watch TCM and talk on the phone.  More than once she’d almost been caught out of her crate because she wouldn’t get off the phone.  Last week, he hadn’t managed to lock her in.  But she covered it up pretty well by throwing herself against the door just as Mommy went to unlock it.

He had to admit, she did have a way about figuring stuff out.  But that did not mean he was dumb—no matter what she said.  He entered the living room and jumped up—first try—to the couch and settled down.

It looked like Aggie had found whatever she’d been after.  She was now typing in Mommy’s credit card number.  He shook his head.  She was going to get caught.  She’d almost gotten snagged before Christmas. 

Luckily for big sis, Mommy ordered all the Christmas presents and lost track of how many should be delivered.  But he had had to help her and created a diversion by harking up some half chewed grass in the foyer while Aggie dragged her package off and stuffed it in the back of her crate.  Personally, he thought she was pushing her luck. 

The problem was whenever she got in trouble she took it out on him.  He’d taken it for the first year or so, but no more.  And things could get ugly very fast now that he was standing up for himself.  Oh well, he told himself, no use worrying over something that hadn’t happened.  He noticed he hadn’t thought ‘wouldn’t’ happen—that was a definite.

He poked at the channel selector until he found Animal Planet.  Oh crap!  It was that awful animal rescue commercial—the one with the crate filled with puppies.  It always made him unhappy. 

He’d tried to get Agatha to call the number and make a donation.  After all, she didn’t hesitate one second if she found something online she wanted.  However, she refused to do it. It pained him to think it, but she was very self-absorbed.

“Don’t even start whining about me calling,” Aggie stated in a harsh tone.  She hung up the phone and turned off the computer, before she dropped to the floor and headed outside.

Robbie followed her as far as the foyer, stuck his head through the dog flap and said, “I think you should get back into your crate.  Mom will be home soon.”

“I want to look for something first.”  She pushed her way past him and went to the dining room. 

Robbie followed along.  It wasn’t like he had anything better to do.  She managed to get onto one of the dining chairs. Robbie watched with the kind of morbid fascination that made him watch her get her shots at the vets.  She scriggled between its back and the table, and then up on top of the table.  “What are you doing?” he asked.  This was very bad.  Dogs did not belong on the dining room table.

“I just wanted to see something,” she growled.

“They aren’t there,” he said with an air of superiority.

“What?”

“The box of chocolates,” he answered.  “Mommy has them up high.”

Aggie scowled.  “Oh.  I see.”

“Chocolate is bad for you, you know?”  Royal pain that she might be, but she was his sister.  “You heard Dr. Robertson.  It could kill you!”

“I liked Dr. Robertson.  The new guy is all right,” she sighed, “but Dr. Robertson said I was ‘perfect’.”

“Oh, really?” he questioned.

“Yes.  Of course, that was before you were around.  But he said it.  He said those exact words—‘I was perfect.’”

Robbie sat down and muttered under his breath, “Yeah, well he hasn’t seen you lately, has he?”  Then he started licking himself.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that in front of me,” Aggie said.  She jumped down from the table and added, “And don’t think I didn’t hear what you said.  But it is getting late, so come on and lock me back in.”

She led the way to the bedroom and slipped back into her crate.  Robbie struggled with the latch.  Twice he thought he had it, but it snapped back.  He could feel his sister’s disapproving gaze as he tried again. 

It stung his nose when he missed.  But this was nothing to the dread her staring caused, making it progressively harder each time he made an attempt.  Finally, he heard it snap shut. 

As she watched, he went into his crate, and returned with a rawhide knot.  He pretended not to notice her look of anger.  He just trotted out to the sunny chair in the foyer, jumped up and settled in for a good chew.