STOP
I see feet.
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Hordes of them.
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They kick around.
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Swing, dance, it puts me in a trance until one of them steps on me.
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"Ouch" I yelp.
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They merely wave a hand at me their mouth too full to speak an apology.
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I trot out of the eating zone, which today, appears to be everywhere.
I search for scraps. My nose is built for that.
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I breathe in the glorious scents descending through the air. These sparkling pathways, they speak to me. Each one has its own distinctive flavor.
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In this world there are much more than 31.
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I hum with pleasure as a hand reaches down to pet my back. It slides along the spine and hits the spot that makes fire crack and pop.
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I go legs up and am stroked readily.
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Then the hand disappears.
I fold back my ears. Many sounds come to them, wood that roars from the room in the rear
or music that people love to hear, laughter sparks, dancing from ear to ear.
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I am here in the middle of it all.
I am okay with the attentions I receive.
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Some of the people seem to need my company. They call out to me and beckon towards them.
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I give out love as freely as I can but sometimes a certain hand reaches too fast or grabs in a strange spot on my ass and I skip out of the way, for my desire is to play, not be the stress ball for others to squeeze.
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First, I please me.
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I lick my balls and call to my sister to distract the one who frightens me.
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Food smells! pull me out of the warm, hidden cave and I brave the main room where the feet are like brooms.
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Boom. There I receive my treat, turkey meat from the fingers of one and the drippings. This place is sopping with food.
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Thankfully I am in a family who eats good.
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The little one is always creeping around with her strange walk, pawing at everyone's legs and she can't seem to stop. They never step on her.
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I try it and to my surprise everyone turns their eyes back to their plates.
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Well isn't this great.
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I will go to my bed and lay and smell and watch until one of them calls me off to give me pets or better yet scraps or maybe both, you never know, and some of them are so lovely, full of kindness, it fills my tummy with butterflies.
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Someone new!
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I bark hello and they lower themselves to me in greeting.
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I look at them with my big brown eyes, while my coat glistens from the oils that mist the air. Brownies are being prepared.
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This season is cold and I am outside to pee looking at all the brown leaves on the ground. They sound crunchy under my padded feet. I pause to smell the decay before I make my way back inside, to the warmth of the hearth and the sounds of the Earth that creak through the upstairs making some of the humans whisper.."Ghosts..."
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Then they toast their lips with sips of buttery wine while roasted wine takes its time slipping into the salad. I smell it land on persimmons.
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"Mo!" I hear my name and smells of smoked turkey fill my brain.
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