Meet Ben

I am taking a break to recover fully from the injury described in recent posts . In the meantime Kevin Power from Cork -a lover of dogs, wine and words – describes his dog’s recent 5th birthday celebrations. Followers of this blog might care to note that Kevin is ‘Frank’ from a previous post, which you can read here. Archie never gets the treatment described in this post – on his birthday or any other day, but he does have something of Ben’s attitude.

Eric Sinclair

A Visit to the Power House

.. on the occasion of Ben’s birthday

First there was the tasteful arrangement of the plate: a little stack of chicken with a birthday number holding it all together.                                                       

Then there was the formal introduction of Ben to the food – or possibly vice versa. He evinced unfeigned interest.                                   

Then he hoovered up the food (but not the plastic birth number).   

This was followed by Ben’s wistful study of the plate to see if he had missed any little scrap.                                                                                                         

He then retired to the couch to digest and meditate on the good fortune that had permitted his so-called owners to live in his house. Having done that for a few minutes, he rather reluctantly succumbed to sleep. 

By and large, the humans in Ben’s house frequently have the feeling they wouldn’t mind changing places with him, for he is the only one in the house who is truly and unconditionally adored, instantly forgiven, and  all this without his being able to utter a single intelligible word. On the other hand, his repertoire of different barks, yowls, yaps, pleading eyes and paws and pathetic tail-wagging at mealtime (ours, not his) leave us in no doubt that he has mastered the art of portraying himself as a poor, starving orphan dog whose miserable existence can only be abated by frequent gifts of food and at least two decent walks per day, as well as the enjoyable daily and always vain attempt to catch the long-suffering Power House cat, the grumpy and world-weary Silas.

Kevin Power