Milky Way an Tinker Bell Eyrie are different from each other in lotsa ways, but also total Besties, an they were super fun to innerview, but a liddle skittish right at first, they’re Mommy explained, speshully Milky Way, who, for some unknown reason, was nervous around Men Carrying Equip-mutt.
Me an my assistant made sure we were Very Puh-light (which we always are anyway) an also made sure there were no Men Carrying Equip-mutt in the vicinity when we arrived: just me carrying a notebook an my assistant carrying The Satchel, containing yummy snacks.
Milky Way, a hansome mostly white-with-gold-patches Lab-Pointer mixture, an Tinker Bell, a perky an inner-JET-ic liddle red Basenji, anna nice lady were in the front yard to greet us an escort us inside.
Both pooches were wearin’ very snazzy matching purple collars an blue bandanas.
“Good morning,” I said. “I’m Bonzo an this is my assistant. We are duh-lighted to meet you all.”
There was a liddle barkin’, an even Wag-an-Sniffs as we followed them into the house. As we got all SIT-chew-waited, Tinker Bell announced, “Welcome to our Furever Home, Mr. Bonzo! I am Tinker Bell Eyrie an this is my Big Brother Milky Way – we call him Milky mostly – an this is our Mommy, Moira. Our Daddy, Richard, is elsewhere at the mo-mutt.”
After obtaining permission, my assistant reached into The Satchel and produced Ever-yummy bacon snacks, whereupon Milky stopped bein’ nervous, an happily accepted his treat. So did Tinker Bell, for whom my assistant broke the snack into appropriately sized bits.
“I must say, you look very spiffy in those Super Cool Kibbles collars and bandanas. Tray On Trend!” I told them.
“Oh, thank you, Mr. Bonzo!” Tinker Bell said happily. “We dressed up speshully for you!”
“Greatly appreciated! I can’t wait to hear your tails,” I told them, pencil poised.
“I’ll go first,” offered Milky, “cuz I came first an I’m oldest. I’m about 9 now. So, anyway, Mommy was livin’ inna state up where it’s cold, ver-MONT it’s called. She hadda a German Shepherd mixture, Jett, anna Chocolate Lab Otis. When Otis hadda go to Dog Heaven, Mommy wasn’t gonna get another dog, but Coco (now my human sister) really, really really wanted one. So Mommy got me from a very nice human society in Tennessee.”
“Um, who’s Coco?” I asked.
“Coco’s our human sister. We also have two pawsome brothers: Garrett an Cole.
“Anyway, everything was Cool Kibbles until 2020 when alluva sudden everything wasn’t: Jett got cancer an hadda go to Dog Heaven, an that awful human duh-ZEES, Co-vid, happened.”
Tinker Bell, who’d been sittin’ onna nearby chair, popped up. “My turn now!” she said. “I was what was called a Covid Dog cuzza so many humans gettin’ dogs to keep ’em cump-nee when they hadda stay in their houses an not go anywhere for a really long time.
“I’m 6 now, but back then I was a tiny liddle ball of fluff, 13 weeks old, an I weighed only three-anna-haff pounds. First thing Mommy did was change my name from Reba (me an my litter mates were all named for country singers) to Tinker Bell, which suits me way better, doncha think? When Mommy first showed me to Daddy, he said, ‘WHAT is THAT???,’ but, as Mommy says, he melted pretty fast cuzza my adorable-ness. An me an Milky got along right away. He’s The Best Big Brother ever, right Milky?”
“Absolutely, Tink!” Milky replied. “An you’re the Best Goofy Liddle Sis!”
“Humpf!” Tinker Bell said with a smile, then turned to me. “We are also Very Good Watch Dogs.
Also,” she transitioned, “we usta chase Geckos but we don’t any more. I do keep an eye on ’em when I’m eatin’ cuz they’re sorta sly and fast.”
“Oh, an guess what Mr, Bonzo,” she non-sequitur-ed again, “I got to be on the cover of the October issue of Vanity Fur. Isn’t that Totally PAW-some? Come look!!”
She took off an I followed her, an there it was, all framed, hangin’ on the wall, Miss Tinker Bell herself right there on the cover of Vanity Fur! I was TRAY impressed.
Woof! Miss Tinkerbell. That’s Seriously Crispy Biscuits!”
“I KNOW! Right?” she agreed.
“Do you travel much?” I wondered.
“We go to Vermont! It’s Great. There’s SNOW and pretty woods. It takes three days inna CAR. We’re Very Good Travelers, aren’t we Milky?”
“Yes, we ARE. We have our own liddle beds. We mostly snooze, an we get to stay in dog-frenly places called mo-TELLS. Mommy finds ’em onna place On The Line called BringFido.com. An Mommy an Daddy are Very Good about givin’ us enuf Pit Stops along the way.
“Every Labor Day we drive up there to do what’s called GLAMP-ing. It’s kinda like camping – there’s a tent – but it’s WAY fancier than that. I mean, we don’t hafta sleep on the hard ground, with bugs an stuff, but there’s still a lotta Nature.”
“Do you swim?” I inquired.
“Weeel,” said Tinker Bell, as Milky rolled his eyes, “I do. Up at the lake. I even do Dog Wadder Bal-LAY. I try to teach Milky but all he does is just lay in the shallow part.”
“You can splash around all you want, but I am NOT a Wadder Dog,” Milky stated firmly.
“He might not swim,” said Tinker Bell, but Milky is my Protector. One time I got Very Scared by a strange dog on our leash walk an I sorta freaked out an tried to run away. Now, when I get scared, Milky tries to bite my leash in two so I can run away an be safe. It’s an in-stink, I think. But we’re gettin’ that figured out. He’s my HERO.”
“Do you have any favrite toys? Or snacks?” I asked them.
“We have a whole basket of nylon bones, cuz we LOVE chewin’,” Milky replied.
“An Mommy fills our marrow bones with peanut butter, which is Totally De-lish!
“Plus,” Milky continued, “Mr. Joey, who has a golf cart an works in our neighborhood, always has treats for us. Sometimes, I hafta admit, I get a tiny bit over-excited an jump right into the golf cart with him.”
Headin’ home, I was thinkin’ how much fun I’d had listenin’ to Milky an Tinker Bell’s hilarious an excitin’ stories. An wonderin’ what my chances were of Gramma or Grampa fixin’ me one of those marrow bones filled with peanut butter.
Till next time,
