he streets are getting noisy at nights again. The uber-pups have returned to the house down the street. It happens every year just when the days start getting cooler and the nights longer.
It can be an interesting time. For the few weeks before my humanoids getting around to putting the storm windows back on, it's very pleasant to sit in your corner and listen to the night sounds of the uber-pups in their strange courtship rituals, the music, laughter late into the night, the occasional smash of broken glass and fizzing beer, slamming doors of taxis that have come to take the females home.
The Pup and my Alpha seem to be able to sleep through all of this. She Who Must Be Obeyed often wakes up and grumpily slams the window closed, which is a shame. I wish she would take me for a walk so I can find out what's going on. It's all very strange.
I don't know why the uber-pups gather like this every year. Maybe their alphas send them to kennels when the trees start to change color, just like they send us to kennels when the weather gets hot. But I'm not sure this can be a valid explanation.
For one thing, alphas don't segregate us by age when we go to the kennels. And yet, all of these humanoids in the house down the street are approximately the same age - about three years old, in dog terms. They're all uber-pups. Too old to have a puppy smell. Old enough to be sniffing around the humanoids of the opposite sex. Too young, it seems, to have puppies of their own, or to get involved with the care and feeding of a Lump.
For another, the humanoids never separate us according to gender when we go to the kennel. But with their own kind, they seem to place all their male uber-pups in the house down the street. The females come for visits, sometimes every day. Maybe for them it's the same as going for a walk to Windsor Park to meet all our friends. But it seems very strange to have all the males together and all the females coming for the walks.
The uber-pup house is right across the street from the park. My Alpha walks me by it almost every day. I usually look up to the balcony where some of the uber-pups lounge about in the good weather. Uber-pups seem to know a thing or two about relaxing and doing nothing, the older humanoids have forgotten.
I roll back my dewlap, let my tongue hang out and give them my friendliest smile as well as an extra wag of the tail for good measure. But it never seems to work. I can't seem to get their attention, even though I'm sure they'd like to throw a tennis ball to me.
Even though they live right across the street from the park, I never see them go down to the playground or the tennis courts or the river. Maybe this is part of the strange humanoid rituals as well. When they reach uber-pup age, they're allowed to lounge about, but they're not supposed to have fun any more. Not until they get a pup of their own or, better still, a dog.
Maybe we should help them. Remind them that there's a park over there and dogs to play with. Add this to my list of things to do: get all the dogs to gather on the front lawn of the uber-pup house some night when they're having one of their parties. We'll all sit and bark and howl in unison. Together, we can drown out the music and attract enough attention so that, just maybe, someone will invite us in. Once inside, we pour on all our doggie charm. Bring out the tennis balls, the frisbees and the kongs. Teach these young ones what a real party is all about.
In the meantime, give some thought to how we can get out of the house and the yard some night. My humanoids lock things up pretty tight, but they occasionally let me out into the back yard. I can make my escape if you can make yours. Let's set a time, a date and spread the word for our rendez-vous. We'll have to do it soon, before it gets so cold that the uber-pups don't party outdoors in the last remaining nights of Indian Summer.
Waiting for the next full moon,
Zoscha