This week I innerviewed a charming bulldog mixture, Nala Smith, one of those compact liddle pooches shaped sorta like loafs of bread with sweet, squishy faces.
Nala, in a pretty pink collar, anna lady greeted us at the padio gate.
“Good morning! Miss Nala I pre-zoom,” I said, innerducing myself an my assistant.
“Yes! That’s ME!” she said happily. “Sometimes my Mom calls me Na-lalalala! This is her, Susan! I also have Mom 2, Miss Wendy. When My Mom hasta be away, I get to have a SLEEPover with Miss Wendy. Anyway, Mr. Bonzo, I always read your coll-um, ever since I learned it was for Reading Only, NOT for, well, you know …” She trailed off.
“No worries, Miss Nala,” I assured her. “It’s a common pooch mistake!”
“Oh, good! (It was just that once.) Come in!” Nala led the way, then snuggled next to her Mom. I opened my notebook. “I’m ready to hear your tail, Miss Nala!”
“This is so exciting, Mr. Bonzo! So, Mom has a FARM way up near a place called Madison at the top of the state. (She pointed.) She’s also in charge of, like, some kinda important piece of wood or something. It’s called, umm, a BOARD, here at the Hew-MANE Society, an she knows everybuddy in the Madison shelter, too. One day she stopped there to say hello to her Shelter fren Miss Jennifer, who told her about this Momma pooch and her puppers (includin’ ME) who got rescued from Dire Straits. Our Momma was chained up in a dis-mull back yard with no food or wader and no place to go when it was rainin’ or cold.
An we couldn’t even reach our Momma for comfort cuz we were outside, too, but in cages.”
“Oh, for Lassie’s sake, that’s terrible!” I blurted.
“It WAS! We were skinny an dirty an had HART Worms, which is Totally Soggy Dog Biscuits. We didn’t all make it, but Miss Jennifer took care of me an SAVED me.
“Anyway, we were, probly about 3 months old then. Our Momma an my sibs got adopted.
Miss Jessica told Mom I was the last pupper left, an Woof, was I cute! Well, when me an Mom saw each other I just had this FEELIN’. I’m pretty sure so did Mom. So I got adopted.
It was May, Twenny-Twenny-Three. Mom gave me shots for the ukky HART worms, and I got All Better. I loved the farm right away, an all the ani-mulls. I’d never got to run all over the place or have ackshull FUN buh-for. It was WONDERFUL! There are CHIGGENS! An COWS! I LOVE cows! I run around with ’em an pruh-tend I’m a cow, too. They just laff an try to not step on me.
“AN, guess what? When I got my Furever Famly, I got two brothers anna SIS-ter. My Big Brother Blue’s a Black Lab, an Sydney an Sam are CATS, with a funny name, Ragdoll, cuzza bein’ all flopsy.”
“I think I spotted ’em in the living room,” I said. “One on the MAN-tull an one onna chair.
They’re pretty Big!”
“Troo! Almost big as me. Me an Blue run around a lot, but I get pooped way sooner than him. He’s LOTS bigger than me. Plus, bein’ a Lab, he LOVES the pool. Me, not so much since I swim like a rock. But I do enjoy the outside shower.
“Any pooch pals?”
“Totes! Superman, a bulldog; Cooper, a Golden Re-TREE-ver; Diva, an Ooodle, I forget which sort; Ryder, a Chocolate Lab pupper; Bodie, she’s a German Shepherd. An my BFF Zucca.
“An me an Mom are each other’s BEST Besties. We’re both fond of snuggles. An we have a roo-TEEN: I wake Mom up for breakfast at 4:30. On The Dot. (I’ve never seen the Dot, I think it’s real liddle. But Mom knows where it is.)”
“WAIT! WHAT? You mean 4:30 A.M.? When it’s still DARK?”
“Yep. Then me an Blue Do Our DUTY, then we go back to sleep. Then at 6:30, Blue wakes Mom an me up for good. An we all go for a brisky morning walk in our Cool Kibbles neighborhood. Sometimes we go to the park. An sometimes Mom drives the golf cart an I trot along, or ride. An Blue runs! TRAY fun!
“Oo, an this is really Crispy Biscuits: Me an Mom had this Very Important Project in Madison. The shelter got duh-STROYED in that hurricane last year, so me an Mom went up to help Miss Jennifer. I suggested to Mom that we should build some speshull, spay-shus one-pooch shelters, and we ended up doin’ 60! I thought it’d be a good plan to get a washer-an-dryer also cuz the volunteers used, like, a zillion donated towels for snuggly pooch beds, an they were washin’ em by paw, er, by hand rather. See, Mr. Bonzo,” her smushy liddle face became serious, “I feel I should do everything I can for them cuz they saved my entire LIFE.”
“That is inspiring, Miss Nala,” I said.
“I always try to help at the shelters (that’s called bein’ a Volun-TEER, an we’re Really Important!) cuz I wanna help Pets Less Fortunate (PLFs) find Furever Homes like I did.
Dogs AN Cats. Didja know right now is the start of Kitten Season? So we need LOTSA foster homes, even for just a weekend, so shelter residents can get away for a while, ya know? It’s very important!”
“I didn’t ree-lize that, Miss Nala.”
“OOO, an Guess What ELSE? In Joon we’re getting a Really Big ’nother, umm, it’s a, umm, THRIFF Shop. Mom says it’s gonna have a whole lot of feet. Square ones! Which I totally don’t understand. Anyway, humans’ll bring nice stuff they don’t need and other humans’ll buy ’em so the shelter can keep helpin’ PLFs.”
Headin’ home, I felt very impressed with liddle Miss Nala’s Very Important Mission to help Pets Less Fortunate. An I had to laugh, picturing the charming liddle loaf of bread with the smushy face racing around pretendin’ to be a cow.
Till next time,
