“Arthur, you better be nice to Mickey and Minnie,” Wendy snapped. “And for your information, you can do that.”
Cradling the phone into his shoulder as a used car commercial came on blaring loudly, Arthur grabbed the remote to turn the volume down on the TV. “I am being nice to them.”
“Please don’t start shearing the sheep until I get back,” Wendy begged.
“Babe, I can shave stupid ass sheep,” Arthur moaned.
“You shave them in patches.”
“Wendy, they aren’t silkworms. Their fur isn’t one long thread,” Arthur laughed.
“Will you wait?”
“Yes, I’ll wait,” Arthur promised.
“I heard you took the pies,” Wendy said and he could tell she was beaming.
“Yep, they raffled off for fifty apiece,” Arthur told her. “That’s more than we get for a pound of coffee we grow. I think you need to concentrate on making pies.”
“No,” Wendy barked, then softened her voice. “So, you’re not having any trouble?”
Laughing, “No. Oh, you wouldn’t believe how many ducks were in the field the morning after you left,” Arthur told her.
“Oh they wait till I leave,” Wendy barked. She loved to duck hunt, that’s why she had labs. Even though she was partial to ducks, Wendy loved bird hunting of any kind. “Have you worked on your book?”
“Sure have,” Arthur smiled. “I stopped typing at three this morning.”
“Don’t you kill off the knight, I’m warning you.”
“I won’t,” Arthur said.
“Hey, baby, they are ready,” Wendy said quickly. “I love you and will call you at our next port stop. The satellite phones on the ship are expensive. Check your e-mail to keep in touch.”
“Have fun, baby. I will,” Arthur said. “Love you.”
When he heard the dial tone, Arthur hung up the phone and put it in the docking station. Turning to the kitchen, he saw the cats sitting in the doorway and staring at him. “What? You have food, water, and your litter box is cleaned out,” he shouted at the cats as they stared at him with indifference.
“You can wait till Wendy gets back because I’m not feeding you the canned cat food,” Arthur huffed as Don and Daisy came down the stairs. He grinned, hearing the massive Rottweilers’ thumping footsteps on the stairs.
Still returning the cats’ stare, “Keep on, Mickey and Minnie and I’ll let Donald and Daisy eat some pussy,” Arthur laughed out.
Don and Daisy came over and he bent down and patted them. “Where did you leave Kit and Kat?”
The dogs just looked up at him, groaning with the pats. Standing up, Arthur headed to his office. Sitting down behind a massive desk, he pulled his chair up and tapped the keyboard to wake up his computer. Opening the daily roster, Arthur added, ‘check the oil and other fluids in the tractor’ to tomorrow’s list.
Several things were on every day, like gather eggs and milk cows. Then depending on the season, more would get added. One thing Arthur loved was order and with this list, he and Wendy rarely forgot any chore that needed to get done. His only regret was that he hadn’t thought of it back when Joseph was a kid. The computer replaced the dry erase board that used to hang by the back door.
Glancing at his list for tomorrow, Arthur put the computer to sleep and headed to the master bedroom located downstairs. There was another one upstairs, but that one was Joseph’s. Upstairs, there were three more bedrooms, two bathrooms, and another room that he used for a library.
Walking into the bedroom, he found Kit and Kat sprawled out over the bed. As he stared at them, Don and Daisy jumped up on the bed. “I think I’m sleeping on the couch,” Arthur said, heading to the bathroom to take a shower.
***
Hearing the alarm, Arthur cracked his eyes open and saw the four dogs on Wendy’s side of the bed. “When momma gets back, she’s going to kick your asses,” Arthur groaned, sitting up and turning on the lamp on his nightstand. Don lifted his head off the bed and looked at Arthur and then looked up at Wendy’s pillow.
Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Arthur turned to Wendy’s pillow to see the cats lying side by side. “Don, don’t. You know Wendy lets the fur balls sleep in the bed.”
Giving a groan, Don put his head back down as Arthur got up. “Up,” he barked and the four dogs jumped up and bounced off the bed. Looking at the bedspread, he could see the dog hair. Like the cats, the dogs were brushed regularly, but they still shed. Unlike the dog hair, there was much more cat hair.
Turning to look at the four dogs sitting in a row and looking at him, “Hey, you know momma lets them sleep up there. I’m going to have to wash the bedspread to get your hair off,” Arthur said, grabbing his workout clothes and heading to the bathroom. “Wish I could leave the cat hair, though.”
Brushing his teeth and washing his face, Arthur grabbed a towel to dry his face when he heard, “Meow,” at his feet. Since Mickey was a very dark grey, he knew it was Minnie, the light grey at his feet.
“I don’t like you,” Arthur stated, putting the towel back on the rack and Minnie rubbed past his leg, meowing. “Yeah, I let the dogs sleep on the bed and you can’t tell momma,” he teased, walking out of the bathroom.
Walking into the kitchen with all the animals following, he smelled the coffee. “Automatic coffee maker; definitely a top ten invention,” Arthur said and felt both cats rubbing his legs. “What?” he cried out, pouring a
