Part 40: SPEAK, 23 Dec

8 4 5

by peteybee46

by peteybee46

SPEAK

23 Dec

The human was standing, talking to Tangle the dog and hoping he might finally learn a new command. "Speak." He said, waving a doggie treat in the air. He made small circles in the air with the treat as the dog handlers do on the Westminster Dog Show. "Speak Tangle, that's a good boy!" Even though Tangle had not so much as twitched.

It was apparent Tangle was less than excited at being offered the bad-tasting dog treat being waved in the air. He just sat there with a blank look, not even bothering to cock his head to one side as he sometimes did. The head tilt would at least indicate he might be trying to understand what was being asked of him.

After a bit, he did turn his head toward the cat, who was lying flat with his head on his front paws. Only the slightest twitch of the tip of the cat's tail distinguished him from road-kill. As only a dog can do, Tangle's left eyebrow rose in a perfect arch. There was no squinting of the right eye, no other muscle flexing to cause even the slightest movement in any part of him. The look, from the cat's view, clearly asked the question, "what is this moron doing?"

The cat, of course, made no attempt to respond. It was quite simply beneath him. Not to mention that even acknowledging anything from or about the walking flea hotel of a dog was never going to happen. They talked to the cat when the cat allowed it, anything else was wishful thinking on their part.

"Look dog," said the human getting more than a little put out at Tangle's refusal to respond to the attempted training, "I know you're not dumb. You have learned there is drinkable water in every toilet, you know to head outside when you have to go, and you can even tell time and fetch your leash when it is time for a walk. So, why are you balking at responding to a simple command? SPEAK!" This with slightly more volume for emphasis.

Tangle, after lowering the eyebrow and returning his stare to the human, calmly walked in a circle and lay down. Quietly. He might have also been a good model for road-kill, except he couldn't resist shifting his eyes from the human to the cat, then back to the human. His head never moved even a fraction of an inch. But, the eyes shifted as consistently as the waving hand of a metronome.

"I give up." The human said frustrated. He smelled the treat he had in his hand, wrinkled his nose, and headed toward the kitchen to put it back in the box.

As the human reached a bit of distance from Tangle there was a very soft "Woof." It was too soft to be heard by the human. The cat heard it, rolled onto his back, feet in the air now looking at Tangle with his head upside down. Even from this angle, he could make out what looked suspiciously like a smile at the corners of the dog's mouth. They would get the human trained one of these days.