INTRODUCING MERCI

Merci, wearing writing hat, with her friend Buddy.

INTRODUCING MERCI
Copyright 2005 Janice Price

It's my turn to write today and when Jan put the writer's hat around my neck to take my picture, Buddy butted in and hogged the spotlight. Oh, well, I guess that's what little brothers do. At least it's what Buddy does.

Perhaps he's jealous. I think he misunderstood what Jan said about her pets writing this column. Buddy thought the job was a shoe-in-his-mouth deal and he was the sole journalist. He talks the most, so he'll probably write the most, but we all have to share this one blog.

I was happy here with Jan and the cats. I had my own bed, my own toys, my own friends and my own routine. When Buddy arrived, he appropriated my bed and my toys and messed up my routine. I didn't mind too much. He was just a baby. But when he appropriated the arms and lap of my friend Mr. Doug, I had a tantrum. I snarled at my cat friends, threatening them with extinction if they so much as touched my rawhide bone that night. I got over it quickly and everyone forgave me.

Buddy can be a nuisance sometimes. He loves to play tug-of-war with all my toys. (I keep forgetting, Jan says they're our toys now.) I like playing with him, but one day he grabbed hold of my choke collar and started tugging on it, with all his weight. He's a heavy little guy. Jan disengaged him right away or she would have had to call P911 for pet rescue.

I wear a pretty blue nylon halter now. Buddy tugs and hangs on that, even when Jan is walking us, but at least he can't strangle me, only slow me down a little.

He always has to have something in his mouth. My head, twigs, branches, things he shouldn't eat, odds and ends of Jan's the cats toss onto the floor, whatever he finds he can fit in his mouth. He has a big mouth so he can fit quite a lot in it.

Having Buddy here hasn't been bad. It's been fun. I have a friend of my own species to wrestle with and a companion to cuddle with when it's cold. Jan says he's a ham and I like ham, so I guess I don't mind too much about sharing my journalist photo with him.

That's all for now.
Merci