It's been a while, I know.

We were out of town over Thanksgiving. We took the Big Van, it was very comfortable, and I got a new bed to take along- very plushy. It was a long drive, and what did I find at the end of it?

Exactly- the White Demon and the Goofball.  But here's the thing- the Goofball had gotten HUGE!  I couldn't believe it- it had just been 2 1/2 months, and that puppy had grown from a reasonably sized guy that I could roll over into this enormous bag of sticks that thumped around the house like a dinosaur.

Anyway, we walked into the house, and the Goofball comes up to give me my props. After I assessed his size, I decided that anything that grew that fast deserved my support, so I didn't bite him too bad.  And he had some tasty puppy food in a big bowl.  But I could smell that White Demon.  I searched around for him, with the Goofball clumping around after me.  We went upstairs, and into the basement, and I could always smell him, but couldn't find him. But something about the curtain in the dining room seemed extremely attractive.  I pointed it out to The Female, just about the time the curtain started to make a low moaning noise.  She pulled it back, and the Demon was revealed.  I lunged, to teach it a good lesson, and Whoa Nelly- I got a face full of razors!  I backed away, my face covered with a furry bag of sharpness that would not be dislodged for what seemed like hours. Let me tell you, I was surprised.

So anyway, the Demon was removed from my face, and instead of running away like any normal Inferior Lifeform, it walked, VERY INSOLENTLY, into the other room and went under a chair. Now, how am I supposed to take this insult?  I mean, there it was, for anyone to see, not even decently hidden, just sitting under a chair.  I HAD to continue the lesson, or else lose my position as Leader of the World.  I rushed over, making a fearsome noise, and damned if it didn't fasten itself onto my face again.

What's really awfull is that this was observed, not just by The Male and The Female, but by the Big Pup's cousin AND the Goofball. I pretended like nothing had happened, but I gave them the eye so they knew not to mention it again. The Goofball understood, but I don't know about that cousin.  There's something about him.  I feel the need to put him in his place everytime I see him.

We were there for several days, and I have to admit, the Goofball and I got along pretty well.  Like all youngsters, he wanted to play, and despite my youthful appearance, I am 91 years old (My birthday was in November) We didn't play long, but we danced quite a bit- I got my rusty puppy bow up to speed, and we ran about the backyard several times. And it was pretty funny- I would get tired and have to lay down, and that goofy thing would also lay down.  Then he would SLOWLY stretch out those long front legs, and then SLOWLY crawl forward on his elbows until there was about 8 feet of back legs laying on the floor, and he would POKE me with one of those gunboats he calls feet, like he was saying "Hey, are you ready yet? Can we play some more?". I had to laugh. And the perks were pretty good, too- they feed him TONS of puppy food, and I would distract him with my measly little cupful of mini-chunks and while he was inhaling that, I would run into the other room and stuff myself on puppy food.

There was only 1 time I had to teach him a lesson- we were packing the van to leave, and he tried to get all up in there- I told him in no uncertain tones that this was MY van, he and his yummy puppy food were OK at HIS house, but he wasn't going back to my house. I taught him some other lessons, too, like how to hide your bones in the furniture, how to dig in the back yard, heck, he didn't even know he was supposed to bark at the other dogs up the alley when we went out for a walk.  He learned how to do that pretty darn fast, let me tell you.  I don't know what that Big Pup was thinking, to neglect such important parts of the Goofball's education.  But I got to him soon enough, and he'll do OK.

But the Demon, man, I don't know what to say about him.  After getting a facefull of razors and blood, I didn't really want to mess with him anymore, but he kept on pushing me and pushing me.  He would walk through the room, tail up, stop and look at me, then go sit on a windowsill and make this noise "Roooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwrrroooooooooooooowwwwww"

Then, I swear, he would laugh.