Tuesday 16 February 2010

The goat-dragon in the backyard

Work has been feeding on most of my daytime hours as I plow toward a deadline. I've started five posts which remain in draft, mocking me, so I haven't much to share apart from this small story:

In the backyard a few minutes ago, I dropped a clothespin. My sister's dog, Ellie, immediately pounced on it and started to eat it. I don't mean playfully chew on it; I don't mean toss it around with her mouth; I mean she genuinely tried to ingest the thing. I think she thought I had tossed it to her, and since I had tossed it to her, it must be safe to eat, and furthermore, delicious. Such blind trust. I wish I had that kind of superpower with human animals. Not that I would try to feed people clothespins. At least not most people.

Epilogue: I couldn't get the clothes pin away from Ellie, who is caught in an identity crisis that makes her part goat, part dragon guarding a cave just beyond King Arthur's kingdom. But thankfully, she got bored and stopped trying to eat the plastic snack. This is a relief. It could have gone so much worse.

2 comments:

  1. I knew I would like this post just from the name (and a pre-established fondness for your writing in particular) and I was right. Read something that makes me happy + be right = fun. Thank you.

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  2. Could be she just likes plastic. My godmother's dog got into the pantry and ate most of a plastic mixing bowl. She also used to eat soap regularly. Both of these gustatory choices were made behind her humans' backs. The dog my mother had as a kid ate a fruit basket - fruit and wicker basket both. I have one cat who attempts to eat inedible objects as a hobby, but she is much less adept at actually consuming them.

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