I came across that wicked Mr Zed, peering through the clouds, snorting and chortling like a maniac.
“What are you looking at?” I burrowed my nose down through the wispy stuff to see for myself.
“That ridiculous mom has done it again,” he flapped his ears and I only just managed to duck as the slobber zinged past my eyebrow.
“Sies, Zed! You’re such a revolting hound. Done what?” I puffed some of the clouds away to see more clearly.
Mom was in the kitchen busy feeding the furry critters. Mr Edge was impatiently whinging like he usually does and Jack the hooligancat was scarfing down pellets, too hungry to wait for his dinner. Gemma was dancing from dainty paw to paw…
“Hey wait! Who’s that? I didn’t know they had a new dog? This COVID-19 pandemic has been keeping me busy.”
“They don’t have a new dog,” Mr Zed snickered.
“Then what dog is that?” I wrinkled my brow and peered at the little critter. “It’s a bit of an odd-looking mutt.”
“It just moved in.” Zed’s jowls quivered and raised his eyebrows, not to heaven of course, because we are already in heaven.
“Are you still talking about me?” Ralph ambled up, “Can’t you just let that drop, its old hat now.”
“The world does not revolve around you, ridiculous cat!” Zed barked rudely.
Ralph got all slitty-eyed and mean looking.
“No, Ralphie. We’re not talking about you. We are talking about the strange dog in Mom’s kitchen,” I gave Ralph a fangy smile. He does, actually, think the world revolves around him, but that’s okay.
“Whaat? I didn’t know they had a new dog! What kind is it?” Ralph whiskered his way in-between Mr Zed and my own furry self.
“The ugly, bulgy-eyed, squashy-nosed type,” Zed smirked.
“But…when did they go and get it? South Africa has been locked up,” Ralph exclaimed.
“Locked down, Ralphie, not locked up. There’s a difference, you know,” I explained patiently.
“Whatever,” Ralph flicked his tail.
“They didn’t go and get it. He belongs to a house up the road. That little critter can weasel his way through their fence and then goes visiting up and down the street. Causing havoc! Obviously, he sniffed that mom’s a sucker from a mile away and hopped into their yard. She was nice to him and so he started visiting a bit more. She’d shoo him home in the evening, but he’d be back the next day. Vetboy tried chasing him, which worked for a while, until mom had words with him.” Mr Zed plonked down in an untidy heap and scratched his ear. It swung back and forth like a curtain.
“But don’t his owners miss him?” I wondered. “Mom would have gone nuts if I went missing.”
“I’m not too sure. In the beginning, his owner would walk around calling for him, and he’d go home. But since lockdown, he’s been squatting in Em’s flat and Mom’s been feeding him along with Gemma. It’s sooo funny. That Gemma is eating cruddy old dog food that she would never normally stoop to.” Zed snorted with glee.
“That squashed-nose brat eats anything, well, nearly everything. Seems like he’s not too fond of veggies. But he eats so much more than Gemma that Mom has taken to cooking them pasta and adding dogfood to it. Real dog food! Not human food like Gemma often gets.
She has to get it all ready at the same time. Both cats and dogs, otherwise there’s chaos.
I watched as mom dished out their dinner. It seemed as though the visitor had manners. He politely sat upon his haunches and said ‘please’ before he shoved his squashy face into the bowl.
“Hah! Look Zeddy – his manners are a lot better than yours.”
“Rubbish,” Zed scowled, “I had impeccable manners.”
The pug also sat quietly when he’d finished chasing his bowl all over the kitchen floor.
Unlike Gemma, who sniffed her food, then moseyed over to Mr Edge’s dish and tried to evil eye him out of the way so she could gobble his dinner.
Mom wagged her finger.
Gemma gave her a dirty look and ambled over to the visitor’s bowl.
She sniffed that too.
Not that there was anything left to sniff, but clearly she was satisfied that they both had the same thing. She traipsed back to her own bowl and started to eat.
I heard Ralph sigh next to me and turned to look at him.
“Bet they miss us as much as we miss them!”