Fips At Large

Early this afternoon Fips and I went for a poke-about at Peralta Park. As usual, no one was there and we had the sun and grass and quiet to ourselves. I had spent most of the morning at the glow box and wasn't feeling very energetic, so after a while I lay down on the park's soft herbal matting. Fips followed suit a little more than an arm's length away. I closed my eyes and thought how nice and lucky it was to be here on the grass with my doggie pal each of us enjoying the quiet, the grass and the sun. All of a sudden, I felt the shadow of a presence.

At first I expected a friendly verbal warning. Instead I got a friendly citation for having a dog "at large". How absurd! He wasn't "at large;" he was "at a plop" right next to me.

We shall fight this!! [-->]

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Fipsie's First

It’s Fipsie’s birthday!! Michael wanted to do something and a couple of days ago alerted me that Fips’ birthday was coming up.

“What do you have in mind?”

“Well, can’t we take Fips some place special?”

And so, it being bright and breezy, come mid morning we piled into the truck and drove over to the new shoreline park at what used to be Crissy Field.

As we got to the Marina, we pulled into the Safeway at Gas Lamp Cove to buy ourselves some chips and sandwiches and, of course, something special for Fips.

“So what kind of cake will we get him?”

Michael wanted a beef-cake -- a big hunk-o-beef with a candle. So slab-o-sirloin it was.

Thus provided we drove down to the sandy beach area half-way to Fort Point and parked next to a table under a cluster of wind-blown trees. As soon as we got the food out, Fips was all nose. Of course, it was typical Bay Blustery and there was no hope for any candle, so we decided just to sing to the dog once everything was spread out.

“Happy biiii-rthday to you! Happy biiii-rthday to you! Happy biiii-rthday dear Fi-i-pise....”

?

“I think we should at least cut it in half...”

“That would probably be a good idea...”

Cake cut, we put it on a paper plate for the Birthday Pup.

GULP.

I don’t know what we expected. Fips was delighted, of that there is no question. But dogs do not dally over red meat.

GULP

And that, before we even had taken a bite out of our sandwiches, was the end of the birthday cake. It was all so business like in a canine sort of way that it was kind of a let down in a human kind of way.

But, although he may not have grasped the reason why, a big slab of sirloin is always a special and exciting treat for a doggie; and so, even if he enjoyed it in his gulping doggie way, there is no doubt that Fips did relish an extra and special treat on his birthday.

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