Continued from October 31st (Part One)…
Anyway, when you see Miss Naiad again she might only be able to see out of one eye and there might be a lot of hair missing over scar tissue on one side of her head.
All in all, she’s taking it pretty well– when I told her it would probably slow her down and make her less pretty she gave me a playful swat with claws bared and a crooked grin– she explained that she could lose ALL her hair and both eyes and still be prettier and faster than anyone else within 50 miles.
On hearing this Mehitabel and Hydrox looked away and tried to remain civil because of Naiad’s delicate condition at the moment.
Later Mehitabel remarked to me in confidence that she considered the comment artless.
You’ll be meeting the new dog, too, if she stays around. Pooch, Ms. Pooch, Poochie, Pooch-hound, or Madam Pooch, depending on the occasion will address her. She’s a medium-sized black dog who came from an unhappy home– her mama died and her daddy married a wicked pit bull that was bad about giving Ms. Pooch what for a lot. It’s the same old story, Ms. Pooch took all she could from her step-mother, then went out in hopes of finding a better home among the Native Americans– life was harder yet until finally she was picked up by a school teacher who was wondering why she wasn’t in school.
The teacher was in the process of moving to Dakota or some other dreadful place and put out the word far and wide that Ms. Pooch needed a home… the rest is history.
Incidentally– most of her background I’ve surmised from her behavior: she hasn’t actually confided much about herself– the step-mother might have been a rottweiler or even a doberman for all I know.
Miss Pooch isn’t pretty– she’s skinny enought to have Little Richard sing an uncomplimentary song about her and call it Boney Maroney. She has some patches of hair missing over her eyes and here and there on her body– scratches a lot– all the the result of the hard life she led until now.
But with love, plenty of food, some medicine for the skin condition I think she will be a good dog– she’s already pretty happy– it doesn’t take a lot of kindness to please her so much she wiggles, scratches, curls up standing and bites the tip of her tail. I’m not overly happy to have her in my life but it’s a joy to see her recovering and being so overjoyed over simple things most dogs take for granted.
Hmmm…. — enough of this! I was going to devote this letter to telling you the finer points of navigation, physics, and astronomy, but now I’ve wasted all my time and paper.
Best to you,
Jack
10:30 PM Post Script
Your mom has a cd by a singer named Tom Russell– on it is a song named “Gallo del Cielo.” That means “Rooster Born in Heaven”– when you are bored some time ask her to play it for you, I think you’ll enjoy it.
“Gallo del cielo was a rooster made in heaven so the legends say
something something something
He had one eye rolling crazy in his head
etc.etc.etc.”
Jack
So Far From Heaven 