Mom was busy in the kitchen and did not hear him so he snuck in the garden gate door instead. Nearly gave the poor woman a heart attack.
He peered at the little plants to see if some more had miraculously appeared. It seemed not.
Apparently these are special plants for that wretched Ralph.
Catnip.
Looked at mom – catnip is all fine and dandy but how about some Dogbite for me?
Mom ruffled my ears – don’t be silly Fudges – there’s no such thing as Dogbite.
And anyway – catnip is an herb – it’s even mentioned in Margaret Roberts’s book.
She gave me the evil eye.
And don’t think about messing with those little plants.
You’re not even allowed to sniff them.
I stomped off in disgust.
But now every evening Alpha gets down on his hands and knees and inspects the little blokkies.
He even goes so far as to count the bits of greenery.
As if that is not bad enough – he decided to plant some more stuff and stash it on the stoep upstairs.
So when he’s finished with the catnip inspection he trundles up to check out what’s going on with his other plantation.
At the moment it’s all desert. There’s not a single bit of green to be seen.
After he’d done his plant duty, he collapsed on the bed and started foofelling with that ridiculous coloured block of his.
Mom perched next to him and they started to chat about their respective days. Nice and relaxed.
Seriously?
I leapt on the bed and bounced around a bit.
Slobbered on him and did the waggly pig thing.
He looked at me. What?
This isn’t your ball.
He waved his block around in front of my nose.
Looked at him disdainfully.
Silly man.
Of course I know it’s not my ball.
It’s square – not round.
Mom snickered… clearly Fudge does not think we should be lying on the bed at this time of day.
Alpha scratched his head.
Hmm… he said. Think I know what the problem is – I never played ball with Fudgie when I came home.
Got sidetracked with the seedlings.
Nodded my head so hard my ears flopped.
Damn straight you didn’t.
Come on – up up – it’s not too late.
So we all trouped downstairs and played some ball.
