28 April
The humans wake up at all times here. The Organizer, the one the others call "Graves," awakens very early in the morning. He is always very cordial, orderly, and efficient. One of the first things he does each day is awaken his helper, a young female called "Patsy." I like her, she always gives me a good scratch when I greet her. She talks to me as she starts her morning duties.
The Watchdog, the one the others call "Salmalin" is always awake when I check on him. But sometimes he sits on the floor of his room with his eyes closed, breathing very slowly. The first time I saw him this way, I thought he was entering the final sleep, but before I had reached him, he opened his eyes and began conversing with me.
The Teacher, who the others call "Missinclair," is always awake by the time I leave the kitchen to check on the rest of the house. Today she was writing in one of her books when I looked in on her.
The Big He-Dog, the one some of the others call "Sircosmo," was writing in one of his books. The others who sleep in the upper portions of the house were all asleep.
I went to the small house, where the Sport Puppy likes to sleep. "Edward," as the others call the puppy, was curled up on one of the contraptions, snoring quite loudly. I decided to take a nap with the puppy until something more interesting happened. We had not slept long before the Teacher collected the Puppy to eat, then took it upstairs to do its lessons.
The Young Hunter had left the premises while I was napping. There's a room that smells as if the Young Organizer and the Jester sometimes sleep here, but I have never seen them do so since I have been here. I will have to find their other den.
The Old Hunter was napping in one of the chairs. The Big She-Dog and the Wound-Licker were doing something with candles and lots of papers in one of the other rooms. The Salamander Keeper was busy in the Salamander room. She didn't break anything today. I have not yet figured out why the others let her tend to all that glass. Maybe I just don't understand the purpose of the Big He-Dog's work in there yet. Perhaps breaking glass is important to what they are doing.
The Organizer's Helper was making some more food. She howls when she's working by herself. Humans can't howl properly, of course, but the sounds she makes while trying are very pleasant, and the patterns are fascinating. Sometimes I even understand the story she is howling.
Most of the humans got all excited when the Organizer retrieved a lot of papers from the little box by the door. These papers look like the ones my old master called "the morning mail" but I have seen no sign of the Funny Smelly Man who delivers those papers at the old home. There was a great deal of rustling papers and and exciting talking. Then several of them began writing on new pieces of paper.
The Salamander Keeper seemed mildly distressed by some of her papers, but one of them made her very happy. I was able to smell her papers later, and I could detect the scent of the young male who visited on Church Day. I think they might be mates. Human mating rituals are very strange, so I may be wrong on this part. Since this herd has so many males and females of mating age, perhaps I will learn to understand them better.
The arrival of the papers turned out to be more important than I had first realized. The Puppy tells me that we are going on a trip. We will be going to the old home to clean up the workrooms of my old master, and the arrival of the papers has something to do with the decision to do this.
The Wound-Licker had me on the spelling board for a long time, asking me many questions about the monkeys, cavies, and the pack at home. They have some very peculiar ideas about things. They are very confusing. They understand many things that other humans don't seem to ever care about, yet I have to explain the simplest things to them.
I had hoped some day to go home and see Mother and my litter mates and all the others. I just wish there had been more time to work with this herd. They are all so terribly disorganized. Still, I will do my best.
29 April
Trains are marvelous! The Puppy says they are a machine similar to the clanking carridge, though with a boiler and requiring lots of coal. The journey took most of the day. The Organizer and his helper stayed at Home. The Young Organizer and the Watchdog seem to be taking their duties while the herd travels.
The Jester is with us. He spent most of the time drinking bitter water. He seems to be very sad.
Long before we reached the train station near the old home, I could smell that we were getting close. It made me very happy. Some humans and horses from the old home met us at the station, and they carried us to one of the houses near the old home. The Puppy likes to ride on carriages even more than I do. It was asking lots of questions about home during the journey.
The herd spent some time settling into the house. It is very like the old home. The Big He-Dog spent part of the evening assembling a machine. Most of the herd seemed very interested in the machine, and spent a lot of time looking at it and touching it.
Once everyone went to sleep, I was very tempted to run to the old home and visit Mother. But that would have left only the Watchdog to protect everyone, and he isn't familiar with this place. And my place is watching my herd.
30 April
The Wound-Licker, the Teacher, and the Big She-Dog awoke early to play with the horses. The Watchdog and a couple of the horse's humans spent some time teaching the Salamander-Keeper how to ride one of the horses. Then the Watchdog and the Salamander-Keeper took two of the horses and went to play with the others.
The Puppy has been working on a very small machine during much of this trip. The Big He-Dog played with the machine, then talked to the Puppy about it. The Puppy gets very excited when it talks about its machines.
When the others returned they were upset. Apparently one of the horse became frightened, and nearly hurt the Salamander-Keeper, but the Watchdog prevented disaster. Finally, we got into the carriages and rode over to the old home.
The Big He-Dog spoke with one of the old master's puppies, then my herd all went to the master's workroom. I ran over to the kennels to talk to the pack. There was so much to tell, and so much to learn from the others! Mother is still sick. She was very happy to learn that the Bad Helper has been caught and that the Bad Monkey is dead. All of the old master's puppies have gathered at the old home. They haven't sorted out who the new Big Dog will be.
My herd has been talking about this problem somewhat. I tried to explain to the pack that humans sort out things differently than we do. That other herds of humans have to be consulted. There seem to be lots of Big Dogs among the humans. Mother and some of the older packmates say that the old master used to travel to the city for some kind of herd of Big Big Dogs. When I was first learned this, when I was just a pup, I couldn't imagine it, but I am beginning to understand how the humans could do this.
It was very exhausting explaining to everyone what I had learned and all the strange things I had smelled and met in the city. I had to go through the chase and fight with the Bad Monkey several times. I had to take a nap.
My humans woke me when they wanted to meet and talk to the pack. The Wound-Licker is strangely intent on finding things that can spell. She was very nice to Mother. She did something to make Mother hurt less. Mother said my human is very nice and clever. I'm glad Mother approves.
My humans have found something disturbing in the old master's work room. They asked me some very strange questions about the cavies and a plant that needs to be fed. Then they became very upset when I asked them to explain about the plant.
I fear I may have failed to warn them about something. Since the old master always said that the Glass Room was for humans only, I assumed that any human would know what to do in there. But they were all very upset and they had been messing about with some of the old master's smelly things. The Big He-Dog sent me with a piece of paper to find the Puppy.
The Puppy was collecting pieces of plants from all over the grounds and writing on some papers the Teacher had given it. The Puppy and I walked back to the old home. The rest of the herd were busy with the papers in the old master's workroom.
I saw that they had locked the Glass Room and put up a sign telling other humans to stay out. They were still doing things with all the papers, and the Puppy wanted to go get more plants, but the Big He-Dog wanted it to stay.
They kept talking about several humans who I do not know. I think they have realized that the old master's puppies are still undecided on who will be the New Big Dog. I think they believe one of the puppies has gone Bad.
The Big She-Dog wanted to go find something. The Watchdog went with her, so I decided to stay with the rest of the herd. They had barely gone, when one of the horse's humans ran over to tell the humans about someone with a box and bad things about to happen.
We must stop the bad things.
Proceed to 2. An Agent of Destruction
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