Hello, my name is Smiley, and I’m a big yellow dog. Now, I’m not usually much of a writer. The last thing I wrote was a Christmas letter in 2005. Mostly I just shed all over the carpet, beg for food from the table, occasionally steal food off the countertop, sleep, and go for walks.
It was on one of these walks that the trouble began. It was a beautiful day with a crystal blue sky and not a single cloud to be seen. I was sniffing all the deer, fox and rabbit trails when my nose was overwhelmed by a smoky smell. Even my people, with their pathetic noses, noticed the odor. They peered into the sky, turned around in all directions, but couldn’t see a wisp of smoke. So we all continued on our walk, and I didn’t worry about the smoky smell at all. I mean, maybe one of the neighbors was cooking out, and maybe I could go visiting and “borrow” whatever was on the grill.
I didn’t get the chance to check it out however. We went home, I mooched a few bites of the humans’ lunch and then went off to sleep and shed.
Then the phone rang. It was that nice lady, Mrs. Cunningham. (She kept me once and was very good to me.) Evidently she informed the humans that there was a fire on the other side of the Retreat, started at the end of Dunraven Glade Rd. Then the phone rang again, and it was my friend, Mrs. Dunavan. (She lets me out every so often and I am very grateful.) She was calling about the fire too.
My people sprang into action. They started throwing things into the cars. Jewelry, files of papers, clothes. At one point my human mom went tearing around the house looking for something called a “baby book.” She must have spent an hour looking for it and was quite frantic until she found it. After that, more stuff went in. Thankfully, this included my food bin. When I saw the food, I decided it was time to load ME too, so I jumped into the back of the smaller, dirtier car (I don’t think she’s washed that thing in years) and made myself as comfortable as possible.
I didn’t budge. It looked like we were moving (again). I didn’t like the thought of being left behind. Despite the tiny space I was wedged into, I stayed put for a very long time. I think the humans were waiting for the final order to leave. Every once in a while they would add a forgotten item to one of the stuffed vehicles.
I finally left the confines of the car so that I could have my dinner. After that, I hung out with the people out in the road while they watched some noisy things flying around over the western sky. Neighbors came out and they too watched the flying things. All the humans seemed pleased to see these things. A couple of them dumped reddish cloudy looking streaks of stuff. A couple others flew back and forth with big buckets hanging underneath. By this time the smoky smell was stronger and there was a cloud of smoke that could be seen. Some grey fluffy stuff flew through the air and landed on my nose.
I guess the people got hungry because we all went inside and my mom made dinner. We all settled into a fairly normal evening. The boy did some work involving books, papers and pencils. Mom left dishes in the kitchen. The humans watched TV, I think it was people hitting a yellow ball back and forth that was on the screen. And then after a trip outside so I could do my “business”, we all went to bed.
Several times during the night though, I heard people stirring. I came to check it out and they were peering through the windows that face toward the smoky area. An eerie glow was visible over that way. In the morning, smoke was still billowing over there, but not as much. Soon, the flying things started up again and I listened to them off and on all day.
By afternoon, my mom began taking all the stuff back out of the cars and putting it all away. I think she was grateful to be doing this, but a bit perturbed too. Humans are so strange!
Anyway, life is normal again. I’m back to eating, sleeping, walking and shedding. The biggest excitement lately was the snow we had last week. Snow is my favorite time of year. Maybe I’ll have to write about that too some time...
