Benji’s Friend
Hey everyone! It’s me, Benji, again! Happy Halloween!
So, the craziest thing happened the other day. I was out on my lead in the backyard when I saw the strangest sight. Sitting in the window of one of my next-door neighbor’s houses was a furry four-legged thing. It looked like a smaller dog, but the ears were pointed up and the tail nonchalantly flickered up and down as it basked in the warm afternoon sun. Something looked off about it though. Naturally I got excited and started barkin’ up a storm. BARK WHO IS THIS? BARK WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? BARK WHY WON’T YOU COME OUTSIDE? It looked at me, bent its ears back, and made a scratchy hiss noise before jumping out of the windowsill and out of sight.
The next day, it was back! It hasn’t marked any territory in the backyard, and I haven’t seen it around the mailbox on my walks so this time I trotted up to the window to introduce myself.
“Hi, my name is Benji the Dog. What exactly are you?”
It stared at me, a little unnerved, for a second and replied, “My name is Penelope the Cat and I’m a princess.”
“WOW! That’s so cool, I’ve never met a princess or a cat before!”
After a couple minutes of chitchat, I learned that cats are really weird. They do the ‘no! bad dog!’ inside the house in a box full of sand and they don’t go ‘bark’. Instead she goes ‘meow’ and prefers fish to steak. At first, we disagreed on things.
“You can’t mark your territory inside! That’s a bad dog!”
“I can and I will because I’m not a bad dog! I’m a good beautiful elegant cat!”
“What does your human do when you do make a bad dog?”
“She scoops it up and throws it away. Its kind of like how your human scoops yours up in the yard and throws it away.”
“Oh, that’s interesting!”
Even though she does things and looks different I sat and did what Benji does best. Listen. #floppyear Once, I even tried a piece of fish that Ms. Annalisa’s daughter, Rivlet, dropped on the floor. It was delicious and I told Penelope about it the next day.
“See, what did I tell you?” She replied with a little purr.
At first, I was nervous but after just talking and listening to Penelope I realized she really was a kool kat. I learned that day to never judge another animal by their coat. Now I say hi to her every afternoon when I go out on my lead and she waves her tail back at me. I found a new friend. Its time for ‘ol Benji to sign off. There’s a treat in exchange for a sit with my name on it. ‘Til next time.
Benji, Therapy Doggo
Written by Mark Smithson