Songwriter Roger Radcliffe had been working hard all day. It was harder than usual to do his best to come up with original songs as is known for any person with such a career. He did not believe that any of them would be hits but he still liked them and knew well that it was not up to him to decide whether or not his music succeeded; only an audience would decide.
What little he thought of were based on recent historical events such as Singapore’s independence from the UK, the success of the autobiography Born Free which told the story of how a German woman and her husband who was a Kenyan wildlife warden adopted a Lioness named Elsa whom they trained for release into the wild and also the welcoming of Frank Kitts as the Mayor of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.
Giving himself a coffee break, Roger then took to reading the papers as he gently rested his feet on his male Dalmatian Pongo. He was nearly on the point of jumping to his feet in excitement when he saw that six days back, a new restaurant had opened in the Chinatown of London where he had never been. Roger could not remember whether or not he had ever had Chinese cuisine in his life, let alone he had never been to Chinatown in Westminster City where he had always wanted to visit.
With evening approaching, he decided he would buy some food for dinner from there. Although he had already walked Pongo, he believed it would be good if his dog had another walk for the benefit of double fitness. The two walked to Chinatown and Roger was amazed by the sights and sounds of everything there which made him feel as if he was in London no more but in China.
Then he saw what he had come for. It was easy to identify the new Restaurant because its appearance was quite different to what other restaurants there were like and as is known when a new restaurant opens, at times it may not always look similar to any of its other contemporaries nearby. Turning to his dog he said “Now listen Pongo, you know I can’t take you in. I’m going to tie and leave you out here and go to receive what I need then I’ll take you home and we’ll dine together.
It was amazing that Pongo did not get impatient or restless while his master went inside to purchase and wait for the food. The two then went home to eat. Roger had never eaten using chopsticks before and was looking forward to doing so for the first time. He was quite clumsy at first but then gradually took to a brief practice without eating so that he would not make a mess during the practice. In no time at all, he was a seeming natural in using his chopsticks to eat. Suddenly, Pongo nestled his head on Roger’s lap and refused to take it off.
“Pongo buddy……I’m trying to eat” Roger said. Then he realized that because he had been so immersed in his practice of trying to learn the use of chopsticks that it nearly erased from his mind that he had been meaning to feed Pongo some of the meat in his fried rice dish which he had purchased. “I’m sorry pal” he said and tossed a piece of meat on the floor but Pongo made no move to run over and pick it up to eat.
Roger then knew what his dog wanted; proper dog food and not any that was meat. Pedigree was a popular dog food that had just arrived in London a few days back in stores and while Pongo was already getting acquainted with it, the last time he was supposed to eat some he could not because he always wanted to see a packet which did not look damaged and if his master selected that, then he would eat it.
“Alright I remember” said Roger. But when he looked in the pantry, there was no more pedigree and the only was what he wrongly thought to be a contaminated one a few days back and had disposed of it. “It’s not looking good Pongo” he told his dog. “Just wait right here and I’ll be back with your dinner and he headed out into the night streets to the nearest store. As he looked through the entire pet food area, he was shocked (and surprised at the same time) to find that there was no Pedigree anywhere. “Hey buddy, this is seemingly radicicolous where’s the Pedigree?” he said turning to the shopkeeper.
“We’ve run out recently sir and I’m sorry” said the Indian shopkeeper. Not wanting to leave his dog unsatisfied as a seeming alternative, Roger still grabbed some ordinary dogfood tins (at least 11 or 14 of them) and headed back to Pongo. “Sorry pal, I didn’t find your favourite but I might have one here somewhere that I didn’t know of” and he unimaginably took the pedigree he had thrown away out of the bin and after a brief wash of the packet, poured the contents into Pongo’s feeding bowl. “Enjoy buddy” he said. Pongo gave a look of surprise first at his food and then Roger before turning away and sniffing through the contents of Roger’s package knowing that there was something in there. Roger then realized that Pongo would not necessarily be displeased if he was not able to eat his Pedigree and was happy that he could be accustomed to eating any kind of dogfood.
With that, he refilled Pongo’s bowl with the new dogfood and the remaining cans he put into a compartment which if one rolled out would be caught by a device that looked like a tin opener and it would have the cover screwed off so that the dogfood would drip into Pongo’s bowl. In the morning, for his breakfast, just before John got out of bed, Pongo ate another can of it thanks to that machine. He looked forward to when he would receive Pedigree next but for now, he was happy with what he had (to eat)
THE END