Hello, I'm Gretchen. Do you like my clean shiny coat? My humans sure do. I know that because they always brush me a lot when I come back from running in the woods down the street.
I love the woods. There are so many wonderful smells down there that you just don't find in the city—different animal smells and their droppings. If I get into them too much, my humans give me a bath. Oh, well, as Penelope would say, "whatever."
Do you know my friend Penelope, the weird looking pig sort of a creature? She's my friend not only because she's just likable, but because she helps me get out of my yard to go explore with her. None of the other dogs can get out of their yards, so I just run with Penelope—she's fun and funny. I like her.
I'm mostly out and about in the middle of the day when my humans are off somewhere else. Penelope figured that out for me. She can dig, my she can dig. There's a corner of the back yard that's behind a bush. Penelope not only dug a hole under the fence big enough for me to squeeze through, but she covered it up with a branch from the bush. She chewed the base of the branch just enough so it would fall and cover the hole, and still stay green like it belonged there. It's one of those kinds of bushes that stays green even in the dark snowy season, so I can get out whenever my humans are not around to catch me at it.
I first met Penelope when I was running in the woods one day. My humans had left the front gate unlatched, and quite by accident I discovered that I could push the gate open and get out. Running free—what a joy! That day I stopped short after going only a short distance into the woods. There was this house thing that wasn't there before. And in front of it was the strangest creature I'd ever seen; that was Penelope.
We looked at each other as anyone would when meeting a strange animal for the first time. There was something reassuring about Penelope that made me trusting of her, and I followed her up the ramp into the strange house. She looked back to make sure I was still following, and led me through these different hallways and into one of the rooms.
I stopped at the door to the room when I saw this very strange looking woman. She was sitting down and invited me to come to her by patting her lap like humans do. But she was talking to me in some other way too—a way I still don't understand, but I talk in that way all the time now to others who also know how to talk that way. The woman said her name was Kaggla, and I felt natural just coming up and putting my paws in her lap. I half expected to be scolded for that as my humans always do, but Kaggla just caressed me and told me how beautiful I was.
That was it for any discipline I had left and I freely licked her face and barked happily. I felt my tail wagging wildly. I liked this lady!
Kaggla did something to my collar, and something changed. I really can't describe it but it was sort of like being able to smell a lot of different smells you'd never noticed before. Wow, I felt like I understood about humans. Kaggla said that was exactly what had changed about me, and that Penelope would be a good friend for me. I needed no convincing of that, because Penelope and I looked at each other in that special understanding way.
Well, there are some things I'd like to explore today before I have to go back to my yard and be there when my humans get home. I hope to meet up with you again soon.
See you later. Bye.
