ZAFFY IN CAPTIVITY (July 4, 2020)

I’m stretched out on my boy’s big bed in the gelid dark when I hear the pss, pss sound that my mom human makes when she opens the kitchen door in the morning. I push my way out of the door and see her at the top of the stairs with her arms open, and I run up to greet her. She kisses my nose and forehead and says I’m a lovely girl. She calls me ‘pussycat’ which is odd, because I’m a big heavy dog. She takes me to the garden so I can do a xixi (we pronounce it ‘shi-shi’), saying we’re the only women in this house and it’s important to pee first thing. Then we go to the kitchen where she fixes me breakfast, heating up chicken and broth to mix with my kibble. I watch her and lick my chops in anticipation. Then she sets up a breakfast tray for her and my dad human, and says, “Go on up to dad,” and I run up the stairs and jump on the bed, where my dad human is all happy to see me. Sitting in bed they share an orange, and each give me bits of their segments. I keep looking at them until I’m sure there’s nothing left, and then I go to sleep while they have their coffee and bowls of stuff they can’t share.

When my mom human gets dressed and goes down two sets of stairs to the laundry room, I follow her and slip into my boy’s room to see if he’s woken up. He used to wake up so he could walk and play with me before he starts talking into that thing on his desk, but more and more he just sleeps until the very last minute and doesn’t have time for me. Instead I watch my human parents work in the house and garden and I go from one to the other and leave my tennis ball handily at their feet, so they can kick or throw it. My mom has a fun thing that she throws the ball down to the next level while she yells, “RUN!!!” Then I make a mad dash down the path and the stairs, using my tail as a rudder and sometimes I get there in time to catch the ball in my mouth. She says, “Muito bem, Zaffy, muito bem,” and I feel so proud.

I got really sick some time ago with bloody diarrhea and everybody got so worried. Ever since my mom cooks me chicken and veggies to go with my kibble. I was never very interested in eating – I mean, imagine eating dry kibble morning and night year after year – but now mealtimes are fun. I dance around the dish that they carry out into the garden where we have our lunch – I always get served first, and my dad laughs happily when he sees how eager I get about the food. After lunch we all go back up to their bed and have a rest. Then my boy appears after he’s done working and says, “You wanna PLAY?” and I run down immediately to help him walk around the pool for a long time and then do yoga on the mat. When he goes to take the cold shower that makes him yelp like a dog, I go back up to my parents to rest some more. 

I used to go out in the street with my human friend Helinho, whom I’ve known since I was a baby. We’d walk every morning, but now he’s not here and no-one else takes me. I miss him and my other human friends a lot. Only my mom, my dad, and my boy are here, and we all stay inside the walls  When the doorbell goes I know I can’t go - my mom got so frightened the one time I did - but I stay behind a glass door, and if I see the delivery human I bark my fiercest bark to remind them that I am here and I will protect my humans at any cost. Sometimes I stand in the upstairs window and I can see dogs being walked in the garden across the road, but even if I bark a lot, they never look in my direction. They must be quite stupid or deaf.

I miss investigating scents on my walks. Now I can only smell my own pee and turds, but they’re always the same. Sometimes I lie next to our garage door with my nose pushed against a tiny opening, just to see if a dog should go by or some interesting smell waft in my direction. And then sometimes I just run out of things to do and I feel quiet and a little sad. But then my boy appears for his second round of exercises, and he says, “You wanna PLAY???” and I’m all good again. 

In the end I do a lot of running around and get quite tired at night. After my dinner I wait for my humans to have and share a snack, and then I go lie on the sofa, where my mom has spread a special blanket for me. I sleep while they read and chat, and sometimes I have to make room for my boy, which I actually really like. Most nights we end up going upstairs to watch a movie in the dark, and then I get another big snooze on a thick blanket on the floor. When the movie is over my dad turns on the lights. My boy gets up to head down to our room, and he calls, “Come on, Zaffy. Time for the goodnight biscuit!” and then I run down the stairs after him.