Trying to Make Things Lighter

My neighbor’s dog, Shamus, loved coming over to my house. He spent more time here than at my neighbor’s home. One day I joked with Shamus that essentially he’s my dog. Shamus said he belonged to no one.

I apologized to Shamus. I said I felt stupid for seeing him in the wrong way. Shamus said I could use feeling dumb. I had a treasury of intelligence that was wearing me out with its weight.

Shamus picked up a squeaky toy, threw it and said, “Fetch, fetch.” I ran after it and picked it up in my mouth. I barked and we both laughed. That’s when my neighbor came over. He took Shamus and I haven’t seen him for months.

The other day I was feeling lonesome for Shamus and brought the squeaky toy with me to work. I was sitting in my office working on some client’s accounts when my head felt tired and heavy. I closed the door to my office. I took the squeaky toy out of my brief case. I threw it up in the air and caught the toy in my mouth. I bit the squeaky toy and shook it in my head with delight. That’s when my boss came in.

I dropped the squeak toy from my mouth and began to pack up my things. My boss asked me what I was doing. I said, “I’m fired, right?”

My boss reached inside his suit’s inner pocket and took out a small see through plastic ball with a loose metal ball on the inside. He threw the ball on the floor and it went under my bookcase. He got down on all fours and went crazy trying to snatch out the ball. He made cat hissing sounds.