The Sleep of Innocents

A friend of mine started his banking career as a fledgling trust officer. Among other miscellaneous duties, he was assigned to routinely check up on the fulfillment of some millionaireness' Trust for Fifi. Her entire Piedmont Hills estate was to be maintained "just as it was" for the life of her canine darling who had to be fed a precise menu of filet mignon from a silver bowl...and so on and so forth. Two caretakers lived at the estate for this sole purpose. Every other Tuesday or so, my friend would straighten his tie and head on out, saying "Well, it's time to go make sure darling Fifi is being taken care of...."

At THIS estate, Rosci kept this caretaker up till about 3 am. Every time I was just about to fall asleep, he started up and ran out the flap door barking furiously. At one point, I heard what sounded like snarling, so I got up, went to the door naked, saw nothing, got dressed and went outside looking for him with a flash light. He was nowhere to be seen. Then, out of the dark, darts this little rocket doggie, vacuuming the ground with his nose. Jes' sniffin. So I bring him inside and give him a chew bone, hoping it will distract him. For a while it's quietish... gnaw, gnaw, gnaw... And then: WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! ... Oh gawd!!!! Will it never end??

This morning while I am drying off from the shower, I see Fipsie draped over the bed. Where is Rosco I wonder? Nowhere to be seen. Then I look more closely and protruding out from under the mountain of blankets is a very round fuzzy butt. What a charmed life he leads.... barking till three, sleeping the Sleep of the Innocents till ten.

I return home later in the afternoon to the sounds of Hobbes is doing his Chinese Meaow Torture. I snarl at him several times to no avail. He WILL be fed, on the mark NOW. In fact 'myaoh, myaoh, myaoh' starts to sound like, 'now, now, now'. So the nanimoos got fed on the earlier side today.

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