Breaking news: Matt is no longer Small Dog’s Arch Nemesis…
When Small Dog first moved to his new home he was intrigued. He may have greatly enjoyed his previous habitat with its exciting smells emanating from the nearby fish & chip shop (a smell that also happened to taunt fish & chip lover Matt every day to add further delight), not to mention the nearby cliff tops where Small Dog would often take Matt for an unscheduled and rather under-equipped abseil during their walks together, but this new house offered something different… a blank canvas.
This house, you see, was newly built. A brand new house on a brand new estate with merely the odd neighbour having only just moved in. Paddington’s former home had been, if anything set amongst a dog walker’s paradise and maintaining the rule of order over his Kingdom had become something of a daily chore, having to drag his humans out several times a day and drink frankly copious amounts of water to retain overall control. Here though was a new land, a place untainted by the scents of other four-legged gods (as all dogs know themselves to be). He set to work quickly, swiftly taking control of the surrounding area and fiercely (or rather slightly less softly than usual) protecting his own private palace.
Or at least he was until Cyril arrived…
Small Dog’s humans, whilst clearly dedicated solely to the support and servitude of Small Dog, had made one other small accommodation in purchasing his new mansion. In two of the four corners of his grounds resided a small selection of nuts and a resting table designed presumably to feed up those smaller, currently inedible chickens that the humans called sparrows ready for his elevenses. Whilst Small Dog was loathe to share his new palace with other small animals his desire to eat chicken far outweighed his protective instincts and he had to admit they had their uses as he would often use the winged idiots to spread word of his will to the rest of the kingdom. However the winged beast house had attracted a new visitor.
At first Cyril went more or less unnoticed. He was, after all, almost ninja-like in his ability to climb silently over the security fence, past the gnome guards and sneak craftily over to the nut station. Once in a while a flash of grey might be seen momentarily through the window but nothing more, and Small Dog was pleased to see that with the level of the nuts falling rapidly the chickens must surely be growing in size ready for afternoon tea.
One frosty winter day though Small Dog awoke with a start. Something wasn’t right. He felt as though he had half seen something in his sleep but he couldn’t figure out what the heck it could be. Putting his nose to the ground he thought he could detect something, a new smell he couldn’t quite place. It seemed to be coming from the grounds…
Moving closer to the window he was met with a curious sight… a sight that made no sense whatsoever. It would seem that somehow overnight the winged beast station had grown from it’s top what appeared to be a long grey tail. Small Dog of course had a basic understanding that things like seeds and nuts did sometimes grow into useful things like trees that he could use to mark his territory as well as horrible things like vegetables and those awful spiky things the humans called “conkers”, but never in all his many dog years on this planet had he known one grow into a tail.
What was even more curious was that the tail appeared to be twitching rather furiously and, as he watched, he noticed the nut station move closer and closer to the end of the peg that held it until suddenly it was free falling to the ground getting faster and faster and then in the blink of an eye it hit the ground and out-bounced a big and by now very fat grey squirrel.
As Small Dog let out an almighty roar (or to the human ear a rather yappy bark) Cyril leapt to his feet and scurried back up the fence. Then after a brief pause to catch his breath he scurried some more leaping with rather less agility than before to a fortunately very nearby branch and in that moment a new nemesis was born for Small Dog.
War has just been declared…
