Ten-Finger Exercises

Seamus writes to Riley

Riley is an adorable little Westie. (He'd probably choke me for calling him adorable.) He has his own blog: http://rileyfactorfiction.blogspot.com/

Seamus decided today to write to him, so I'm printing his letter here, along with the photos you've seen before.

Dear Riley,
You probably don't remember me, but I believe we met last year at the Blessing of the Animals. I'm one of the old dogs who come every year. We try to stay away from the cute young pups like you who are all chatter and sniff-no offense. Now that you're two, you may have an inkling of what I mean.

First of all, I want to congratulate you. You're the first dog I ever met who had his own blog, and now you've gone and won a poetry contest. I am so impressed! My human knows I'm too old a dog to learn to write poetry, but at least I thought I'd write you this letter. I want to make her proud.

I'm sending you two pictures, one where I'm lying on the new rug, back when life was pretty good. That was before my humans got a cat. Can you believe it? A cat!

My humans feel sorry for the cat. They think she is scared of me, even though I hardly noticed her at all at first. But then I saw her, dashing ahead of me and spying on my every move. She never even tried to be friendly, or rub up against me like my old cat did. My humans never hear
her say, "Fttt" or "Hsss" at me, (pardon my language,) so they can't figure out why I won't come in the house any more. She has the evil eye,that one, and she says quite clearly in Cat that I'd better not step my foot across that door sill if I know what's good for me. No respect, no
respect at all.

Now, if that isn't bad enough, I had to go get a haircut the other day. I can hardly stand still for that long any more, but I make the best of it. It did feel better to be cool again. But then the heat went away, and I got so cold I shook. My human took pity on me and wrapped me in her old pink
shawl. I'm sending you the picture because, actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was cozy, and sort of dashing, and I knew she loved me.


All the same, Riley, I may not make it to the blessing this year. It's getting too hard on me to get in and out of the car, and I took a fall today. I was so happy to see my human come outside with my leash in her hand to take me for a walk that I forgot I wasn't a young pup like you any
more. I gamboled and pranced pranced around, waiting for her to open the gate, and I slipped on the porch and fell on my head. It took me a few minutes before I felt like getting up, but I finally made it with her help. Let me tell you buddy, you may think those harnesses are really jerky looking, but they make a pretty good emergency handle when you need one. After a while, we made our walk around the orchard, I'm happy to say. I'm not feeling too good now though.

Anyway, buddy, just wanted to drop you a line and tell you how proud I am to know you. Happy tails to you!

Your friend,
Seamus