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Connie spun around and saw the flopearedthe corner at the south end of the block Following hi saw that he had gotten their attention, he snatched hold of one cuff of the boy’s jeans, and with his teeth io, ran toward Connie, stopped halfway between his people and hers, barked at her, barked at the woain, then just sat there looking left and right and left again, as if to say, Well, haven’t I done enough?

The wohtened

The mother was attractive in a way, and the child was cute, neatly and cleanly dressed, but they both had the wary and haunted look of people who knew the streets too well Connie approached theot off his butt and padded along at her side, panting and grinning

There was a qualityøof mystery and awe about the moment, and Connie knew that whatever connection they were about toto mean life or death to her and Harry,to say to theh to speak: "Have you had had a strange experience lately?"

The woe experience? Oh yes

Oh my, yes"

Faraway in China, the people soay

Bitter as dragon tears, great cascades of sorrow flood down all the years, drowning our tomorrows

Faraway in China, the people also say, life is soh he is seasoned with bitter dragon tears, seasoning is just a spice within our brew of years

Bad tiives us sustenance, so we can savor

-The Book of Counted Sorrows

Now they know

He is a good dog, good dog, good

They are all together now The woman and the boy, the stinky man, the notsostinkyof the touch of the thingthatwillkillyou, which is why he knew they had to be together

They know it, too They knohy they are together They stand in front of the people food place, talking to each other, talking fast, all excited, so at once, while the women and the boy and the notsostinky man are always sure to keep the stinkydown to pet hi, good, and they say other nice things about him that he can’t really understand This is the best It is so good to be petted and scratched and liked by people ill, he is pretty sure, not set his fur on fire, and by people who do not have any cat

sirl who called him Prince, there were some people who took him into their place and fed him and were nice to hi cat Mean The cat was called Fluffy Max was nice to Fluffy Max never once chased Fluffy

In those days Max never chased cats Well, hardly ever Some cats, he liked But Fluffy did not like Max and did not want Max in the people place, so sometimes Fluffy stole Max’s food, and other ti the day when the nice people were gone from their place to some other place, Max and Fluffy were left alone, and Fluffy would screech, all crazy and spitting, and scare Max and chase hi cat Screeching Spitting Crazy So Max understood that it was Fluffy’s place, not Max’s and Fluffy’s place, just Fluffy’s, so he went away froain

Ever since, he worries that when he finds nice people ant to take him into their place and feed hioes to their place with the Mean

Crazy

So now it is nice that none of these people has any cat smell, because if one of them wants to be a family with him, he will be safe and he won’t have to worry about pee in his water bowl

After a while, they are so excited talking to each other that they aren’t petting hiets bored

Yawns Lies down Might sleep He is tired Busy day, being a good dog

But then he sees the people in the food place, looking out the s of the food place Interesting At the s, looking out

Looking at hiive hiive hih Prance a little

Wag the tail They like that

At the door, he waits Nobody opens it He puts one paw on it

Waits Nobody He scratches Nobody

He goes out where the people at thecan see his his tail He tilts his head, pricks up one ear They see hiain Waits Waits

Waits

Scratches Nobody

Maybe they don’t knoants food OrHe doesn’t look like a bad dog How could they be scared? Don’t they knohen to be scared, when not? He would never juh places on top of them or pee in their water bowls

Stupid people Stupid

Finally he decides he’s not going to get any food, so he goes back to the nice people he brought together On his way he keeps his head up, prances, wags his tail, just to show the people at the hat they’re ets back to the women and the boy and the stinkyHe can feel it and smell it

They are scared This is not new They have all been scared since he first smelled each of them But this is a different scared Worse scared

And they have a little trace of the justliedownanddie set that smell sometimes, when they’re old, when they’re very tired and sick People, not so often Though he knows a place where people have that sht with the wo

He is worried that these nice people have even a little bit of the justliedownanddie s with them? Not sick

Maybe the stinky man, sick a little, but not the rest of them Not old, either

Their voices are different, too A little excited, not soelse

What?