Dear Reader,
If it hadn't been for my quick thinking, I might have been a soggy little corpse right now. Sweetie was cleaning my territory again, and she had picked me up and put me in the New Place.
I bumped into a huge object that appeared to be a new wastebasket or pail. Keeping my eyes and ears open has led me to conclude a wastebasket holds the food and papers discarded from my territory and a pail is used to hold the sand for refreshing my little sand box. I had to know which it was, so while the Pet was busy cleaning Sammy's territory (as Sammy cowered in one corner, as usual), I climbed on the footstool, seized the edge of the new object and hoisted myself over to see what was inside.
Horrors! I couldn't imagine what I had fallen into - it was as if the air had grown cold and thick and slippery. My fluffy coat was plastered to my sides and my feet skidded out from under me. Then, brilliantly, I realized that the matter inside was the same as the water that comes out of my bottle - enough to fill a fish tank! Fortunately, after few seconds of panic, I had the presence of mind to splash and squawk to get Sweetie's attention.
She rescued me, and I was in such a miserable state that I let her bundle me in a rag, without a squeak. We went bump, bump, bump to someplace beyond even the Place Beyond. She wiped me dry a bit, but I was still wet and shivering. Then aiming a baffling - and noisy - thing at me, she caused a warm wind to play over my body. I tucked my face into the crook of her forelimb and lay quietly - still in shock - so relieved to be drying out that I didn't wiggle at all. For those of you who have never been wet, it is a chilly and nasty experience.
Now that I have time to think, I can't help but wonder: If that thing I fell into wasn't a wastebasket or a pail, then what was it?
<- Previous Letter Next Letter ->