Month: July 2022

Me: Happy Birthday, girl! You are 9 years old today!

Stella: Does that mean I can drive a car?

Me: No. That’s not ever going to happen, no matter how old you are.

Stella: Unfair. I watched you the other day. It’s not so hard. Now that I’m 9, can I pick out my own food?

Me: No, I think we should stick with the healthy stuff you already eat.

Stella: So what good is it being 9 years old?

Me: Well, humans like to think that we are a year wiser.

Stella: Lady Human, you know as well as I do that humans are silly creatures who think all sorts of crazy things. Wiser? Where’s the evidence?

Now, let’s get down to birthday business and talk seriously about cheese and peanut butter crackers.

Copyright 2022 H.J. Hill All Rights Reserved.

I am Stella, Queen of the Olde English Bulldogges. Lady Human is being quiet. Too quiet. Swat a fly! Tell us to “cut it out!” Say something!

Me: Sorry, girl. I was just thinking about someone I used to know.

Stella: A human? Do I know them?

Me: No, he went away long before you came. I learned last night that he has passed away and he was a young man. I’m pondering.

Stella: Passed away like Wiggles passed away?

Me: Yeah.

Stella: Are you sad? You feel to me as though you are.

Me: Yeah, a little. Mainly over missed opportunities. It had been so long since I saw him or spoke with him and I thought my feelings now are silly at this point and don’t really matter. But I was reading about grief last night from a book by C.S. Lewis. He said, “Whatever is matters.” It helped me.

Stella: C.S. Lewis…was he a bulldog? He sounds like one.

Copyright 2022 H.J. Hill All Rights Reserved.

I am Stella, Queen of the Olde English Bulldogges and even I know it is not a day for sunbathing.

Miss Sweetie: But I want to.

Doodlebug: I never sunbath. It wastes valuable exploration time.

Me: There’s not going to be any of that either today.

Doodlebug and Sweetie: Awwww!

Me: Y’all, it’s headed for 108° this afternoon. Outdoor activities are curtailed.

MoonCat: I never sunbathe. I lounge indoors. Far more civilized.

Miss Sweetie: But what if my sun goes away?

Me: Not much chance of that happening this week.

Stella: Or ever again.

Copyright 2022 H.J. Hill All Rights Reserved.