The cats next door froze all winter in subzero temperatures. We heard them crying all night and found their paw prints on our cars each morning. Now the cats are gone and a shepherd puppy chained to a pole has taken their place. He got himself tangled around a ladder yesterday and the woman popped out the back door and slapped the puppy on the nose twice. The puppy winced. Later he tore into a cereal box from the recycling bin and busied himself on the end of his eight foot chain with making flakes of cardboard that flew into the grass beyond him. Then he barked for a few hours. He got slapped a lot for that.
***
All this in plain view of my desk.
***
