Chapter Five

There was one particular thing I did that always made the humans laugh and I learned to do it very early in life.

Next to where Mrs. Boss always sat there was a sort of machine. I did not know what it was but every so often this thing would make a strange ringing buzzing sound. Mrs. Boss would pick part of it up and hold it to her ear! Then she would start talking to someone who was invisible. Well, they must have been invisible because I could not see them. Sometimes she would talk for ages.

Gradually my acute hearing got attuned and I could make out the faint sounds of someone talking out of this thing she held against her head. It did not take me long to recognise that Becky's voice could be heard, very far away and very faint but definitely her. I got excited and would sit in front of Mrs. Boss trying to get her attention, putting my paw on her knee, thumping my tail on the ground and trying to look my most appealing.

Eventually she realized on that I was excited when she spoke and one day, much to my joy, she held this contraption out to me and asked if I wanted to speak to Becky. Mrs. Boss placed it against my ear. At first I heard nothing, then a familiar voice said "hello Pip". I was so happy to hear Becky that I threw my head back and howled, made all sorts of grumbling and whining noises, tried so hard to speak and then threw my head back and howled again. Mrs. Boss broke into such fits of laughing that I did not think she would ever stop and Becky laughed as well. I got told I was a clever boy. Well, I already knew that but it was nice to hear it again.

After that, whenever this thing made its familiar noise, I always thought it was someone who wanted to speak to me and hoped it was Becky. I would run expectantly to it and sit and wait until Mrs. Boss picked it up. Often it was people that I did not know and I did not speak to them, I had been told never to speak to strangers, but I soon learned to recognise the voices of many who were friends. They always spoke to me at some time whilst Mrs. Boss was talking to them and I would always howl back with delight and they would laugh with Mrs. Boss. The humans never seemed to tire of my trick and I know that I loved it.

However, I was very selective and only spoke to those I loved and knew or those I felt instinctively I could trust. If it was anyone other than those, then no matter how much Mrs. Boss tried to coax me, I refused to speak.
It became my special trick and I repeated it so many times over the years. I even spoke to people in America and Australia! I did not know those places of course, but later I would hear Mrs. Boss tell Boss and he would always laugh as well.

I always thought it so marvellous that humans could make machines like that