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Winnifred's Issues

Last Entry

This is Winnie's younger servant. Winnie's health failed while I was away and she was allowed to leave us with her dignity (her most important possession) intact. I couldn't be there, but she was not alone as my sister stayed with her until she was gone. I first met Winnie when I returned after completing a two-year contract in Malawi when she was still a young kitten. She had so many nicknames because no one could agree on a single name and insisted on calling her by their pet names. Mom's name eventually won the contest and the kitten's whole name became Winnifred Sedgewick Pumpkin Smith, Winnie for short. My niece, just a two-year old herself at the time, couldn't manage Winnifred and that's where the nickname Freds came from. As I was unemployed for a period of time (other than serving Winnie), Winnie often woke me up by attacking my feet. I was the only punching bag in the house after everyone else left for the day. She was very athletic as a kitten, turning back flips in pursuit of the feathers attached to a string. Winnie will live on in our memories, but there will be no further entries to Winnifred's Issues.

December 5

My younger servant will be on a detail for the next ninety days. My whole routine has been disturbed for the last week. I am not best pleased. At any rate, 90 days in the Bahamas will be good for her, maybe when she returns, she won't take me for granted. I am still somewhat upset about the dog (I do hold my grudges for a long time). Please look for another entry in early March. My younger servant will have internet access, but I don't like to dictate over such a long distance.

November 27

Life is back to normal, for now. All the holiday stuff is over, for a couple of weeks. The cookie baking season is coming up, so the house will have good smells. Not that they ever think of offering me a cookie. I'd probably turn my nose up at it. Now, if they made tuna cookies... My younger servant gets to see a lot of different foods at her work at the airport. She told me that I'd probably like these cookies from China (not fortune cookies, that's an American invention). The ones she told me about are made with pork floss baked onto the cookie. She says China has interesting candies too, they are essentially dried beef. There are lots of other things she sees from other countries. She tells a story of a co-worker who was shocked the first time he saw chapulines (pronounced cha-PULL-ee-ness) from Mexico. She asked him if he liked shrimp. He said yes, so she replied that he could consider chapulines to be land shrimp (it's grasshoppers). She told him they could open a restaurant called Los Chapulines and feature many dishes that would incorporate land shrimp. (Biology humor is difficult to understand.) I'm not partial to insects, I prefer spiders. Tasty.