The Battle of Second Breakfast.

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Cobwebs the small fluffy dog lived in a big house with one large female human and two smaller versions of the big one.   The large human was free with treats and Cobwebs agreed whole-heartedly with this largesse.  One sad day Cobweb's human took her to a veterinarian who declared that Cobwebs was fat, and as a result her food was meticulously weighed and her treats meted out with parsimonious infrequency.

Cobwebs was not impressed.

 

To make things worse Cobweb's owner and her two mini-mes walked blithely out the door and onto an aeroplane to far-away places and in no time at all in the door walked two humans that Cobwebs didn't know and (shock, horror!) one of them was male (more about that in a minute).  

Cobwebs, being much smarter than she looked, maximised on her big puppy eyes, told lies of starvation, and spent a glorious week happily devouring two breakfasts every morning because both humans thought the other one hadn't fed her.  Then one sad morning the two humans talked to each other and in no time at all Cobwebs was back on her diet and her daily walk extended to a length designed to compensate for extra breakfasts.  Morning communication protocols were refined and big puppy eyes no longer worked.

Having lost the extra breakfast battle, Cobwebs regrouped and addressed the issue of the daily walk.  For the first couple of days she went out to walk with the female human and all was good in the world.

Cobwebs showed the human some of the local laneways.

"I'll take her out" said the male human on the third day, ready to explore the neighbourhood.  Cobwebs had other ideas, and being walked by a male human was not one of them.  The male human lasted barely five minutes in the face of her passive but fierce opposition. "She wouldn't walk!" He wailed. "She dug her toes in and I had to drag her like a sack of potatoes!" Cobwebs, looking smug, allowed him to pick bitumen lumps from between her toes. "The neighbour saw us. I think he'll report us to the owner for dog-dragging and we'll be blacklisted from sitting in Melbourne's swanky suburbs!"

The humans cajoled and tried discrete dog-dragging.  The male human even offered treats, at the risk of messing up The Diet, but this was a battle that Cobwebs was determined to win and win she did. Which was to her detriment really, because now when the female human worked Cobwebs had to languish at her feet all day, and then there was only time for a short walk.

What?  Going home already?  What is wrong with you?
 

Cobwebs did not care.  In the absence of a second breakfast, it is important for a small fluffy dog to stick to her principles.


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