Mrs. Teabody Celebrates Duchess Ming's "Birthday"

Good Thursday Morning, Gentle Readers! Mrs. Teabody trusts that simply knowing the end of the working week is in sight is enough encouragement for a lovely, wide smile from you. So it is. Thursday is a shortened day at Tickle Your Fancy largely because it is a shortened business day elsewhere in the village. Some of Mrs. Teabody's favorite friends work at The First National/Tower/Greystone/Susquehanna Bank, and when Mrs. Teabody sees them crossing the macadam to their motor cars, she knows commerce for the day has ended. This makes Mrs. Teabody both sad and happy, but mostly happy because she sometimes has the opportunity to have an afternoon perambulation with Duchess Ming, Mr. and Mrs. Teabody's most beloved canine friend.

Duchess Ming is, simply stated, the most wonderful dog EVER even though the beginning of her life with the Teabodys was not perfect. Mrs. Teabody well remembers the day she and Mr. Teabody first visited the Cumberland Valley Humane Society on their quest for a doggie. Of the three dogs the Teabodys took into the "bonding room," Duchess Ming was the most aloof, and the dog handler said that black dogs are among the last ones to be adopted. Duchess Ming is a medium-sized all-black, mixed breed dog with a wolflike face, small pointy ears, a black tongue and a curled tail. A BEAUTY.

The trip home from the shelter was not an auspicious beginning.  Relegated to the rearmost part of the car, Ming  soon enough found her way to the passenger's seat atop Mrs. Teabody's lap. The pain from Ming's sharp toenails against soft flesh cannot be discounted. Counterpoint to this, however, was an emotion the Teabodys had not witnessed in their new lovely dog. Excitement. For the first time in the three months Ming had spent in the shelter - - ever since the October (after hours) night she was dropped over the fence by her owner  - - Ming was GOING somewhere. With the Teabodys. Who would love her.

That was EIGHT years ago, Gentle Reader, almost to the day, and Ming has been such a source of joy, delight and companionship, Mrs. Teabody wonders how much less wonderful those eight years would have been without  her. Surely, Gentle Reader, these words have made you think of your own delightful canine friend. In honor of her birthday, Ming has a brand new bag of her favorite food, a huge box of treats, and when Mrs. Teabody leaves Tickle Your Fancy today she will bring along a new squeaky toy so Ming can destroy it, and she and the Duchess shall have a perambulation through the woods in this mild weather. Perhaps Mr. Teabody will join in the amble. "'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished."

Ming is lying curled in a ball on the sheet-enshrouded sofa to Mrs. Teabody's right humming one of her doggie dreams. Music to the ears. Gentle Readers, love your doggies. Hug them. Spoil them. Play with them. Walk with them. They ask so very little, and what would life be without them? Happy Birthday, Ming. Please live forever.


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