Somewhere in the countryside, a big ever smiling Samoyed dog was pacing back in forth on a porch impatiently, he seemed eager to play but had no one to give him attention. A rocking chair near him was a Siamese cat lying on a cushion.
Their owner came to this farm to celebrate two occasions in one event, a big family reunion and the golden anniversary of their great grandparents, many relatives and friends were invited, which meant preparing for the event and the feast that came a rigorous task. This left the cat and dog duo off to their own devices.
Much to the annoyance of Daisy the cat, she was left on her own with Patsy the dog, while the humans who pampered her were busy. She happened to choose this rocking chair for a nap when the dog came and started whining about playing, which she refused.
Patsy sulked, although he loved that there was an occasion to celebrate since it meant his doting human parent would definitely give a lot a juicy meat for him to eat at the feast after, it also meant that he wouldn’t have anyone else to play with. The adults would be busy, the teenagers were helping out, even the children he usually played with were sent somewhere else so they wouldn’t get in the way, Daisy was out of the list with how grumpy she always was, he had no playmate to spend time with.
After pondering for few moments he got up and puffed. “Daisy! I’m going to go find another friend.” Patsy declared.
“Hmm-hmm, whatever.” Daisy rolled her eyes and slumped to sleep, not bothering to see the where the dog wandered. Without the disturbance of her noisy companion, she slept peacefully, dreaming of the various fish dishes to be cooked and served at the feast.
When she was about to take the first bite of the mouth-watering savory tuna served on her plate, her pleasant dream took a strange change. Thunder suddenly roared and the sky darkened, her tuna’s head flopped to look at her in the eye, before she could react it yelled in a voice she was familiar with.
“Hey Daisy! You-hoo! Daisy!” A loud jovial bark to her ear woke Daisy from her sleep with a jump.
The feline hissed, irritated from her interrupted sleep. “What! What is this time! Can’t you see I was about to eat the tuna!” She snapped at the rude dog.
The Samoyed whimpered confused and did a backtrack before returning to his usual goofy expression, much to Daisy’s chagrin.
“I found new friends!”
“So!?”
“I played with them, we did some word games and eye-spy since their kennel was locked so they couldn’t come out, they were even nice enough to share some of their lunch with me!”
Daisy just looked at the Samoyed, if she had the face of humans who could freely display a variety of emotions it would be the same angry expression their owner has whenever they dealt with an unruly person, sadly she was a cat and knew that the dog in front of her was too stupid and dense to read the tension in the air.
Misunderstanding her silence, Patsy continued. “Well their food didn’t really taste great, I took a bite and stopped, it smelled funny and looked funny, like glob, but the flavor was awful! I didn’t say this though because I thought it would be rude.”
“And it didn’t come to your mind waking me up was rude!” Daisy hissed.
“I wanted to share it with you that I found playmates.”
“Then go back and play with them and leave me alone!”
“I can’t!” Patsy complained. “Their owner came and shooed me off, said something about me being a thief for grabbing a bite of their food. That was mean, they shared it with me fair and square! So now I’m back with nothing to do.”
Daisy’s patience was finally gone after the last remark, she stood up with her fur standing, claws out hissing and pounced. Patsy immediately realized the danger he was in and run stumbling away while being chased by the cat. Their chase made a comical sight as they went around the farm, earning them many laughs from the people entertained by the scene of a big dog chased down by a smaller demure cat.
Eventually they stopped later in the evening when their human parent intervened and locked them in their kennel. The next few days were spent with Patsy repeatedly visiting his new playmates and getting kicked out, while Daisy just ate and slept, getting pampered now and then until the day came when the celebration officially began.
The cat and dog waited patiently as the all the trivial ceremonies the humans did went underway until finally they got to the evening party. Most of the menu consisted of an open grill of an assortment of meat, all taken from the livestock on farm from what Daisy understood.
“Here you go, eat up!” Their human owner placed a large steak on Patsy’s doggie bowl and a big chunk of savory tuna cut to bits for Daisy’s portion.
Knowing she would be getting more refills later Daisy started enjoying her tuna. After relishing her meal, she noticed that Patsy beside her hasn’t touched his steak, a strange behavior for the dog, she couldn’t help but inquire out of curiosity.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Aren’t you eating.”
Patsy fidgeted, he kept looking around, then he turned to Daisy. “I can’t find my other friends here.”
“They didn’t come?”
“No, they’re here. They said they were coming and their owner said all of them were part of the feast.”
At those words Daisy suddenly felt a chill along with a dark suspicion.
“Wait, what did your friends looked like?”
“Huh?” Patsy was confused but answered. “Well, they were kind of weird, like they were the most hairless dogs I’ve ever seen, wait, no not entirely hairless but almost, just a little hair on them. They had a flat nose, droopy ears, they only had two paws that were black. Oh! And the kennel they lived in was big, they shared one log food bowl, they were definitely a close knit group.”
“Was the way they talked seemed different?”
“Oh yeah! Like this.” He tried to reproduce the sound they made, making a horrible squeaking noise.
It wasn’t a great description but Daisy already understood the entire picture. She then remembered how her Samoyed companion was only a quarter and a year old, a young dog, where as she was five, meaning unlike him, she had been around many more years to understand what happens to livestock in a farm after many visits here.
It only occurred to her but that was probably his first time seeing an animal other than cats, dogs, birds, fishes and squirrels. The ones on TV don’t count since he never realized it, but just to be sure she asked him.
“Hey Patsy, where do you think meat comes from?”
“Huh, the market?” Patsy replied to the unrelated question.
“And where did the meat from the market come from?”
“They grow there.” Patsy answered with confidence.
Daisy stared appalled, although she and Patsy weren’t exactly the best of friends, and admittedly she did chase and scratch him on more than a dozen occasions, thought that he was stupid, annoying and, wait---her line of thought diverted somewhere else. The point was, she did not hate him nor was she mean enough to stoop low and horrify him with the truth.
“Oh don’t worry they’re probably around here, eating along somewhere else.” Daisy nonchalantly lied. “Just eat now and enjoy the party, they would definitely want you to do that.
“Not that they could do anything about that.” She added in her mind.
“Oh, okay,” Patsy, though he was not fully enthusiastic, bit into the steak.
“Hmm?”
“What is it?”
“This steak….tastes great!” Patsy proceeded to chomp more. Daisy was relieved before he added.
“But somehow, they smell a bit like familiar, like someone I kno---“
“Just keep eating! If you want more before they run out keep eating and stop talking or thinking!”
The dog was confused but happily ate the steak. Daisy was relieved, then she happened to hear the voice of her owner, she looked and saw him having a conversation while helping with grilling meat.
“Whoof! This batch of pork are just the best! Big and juicy, yah’ did great rearing them pigs Jeff.”
The other human, named Jeff said with a smile. “All thanks to good ole’ organic feeds and quality care. Your dog was hanging around with ‘em a few days ago, Tim.”
“He was just looking for a friend to play with.”
Daisy shuddered and felt grateful she was a cat. Patsy’s new friends are with them alright, they were in attendance in another way.