“Dear Sara” by Metassus

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You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.

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I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,

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and today’s story is

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“Dear Sara” by friend-of-the-fireplace Metassus.

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Based in the wild west of Ireland,

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Metassus started writing some time back as part of the

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"Thursday Prompt" group on Fur Affinity.

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His work has appeared in the Anthrocon magazine,

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in Fang Vol. 4, and occasionally on his printer by mistake.

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He is particularly keen on word-limited micro-fiction,

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calling them "365 Word Tales". At some point he'll have 365 of them and consider his work on earth done.

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You can read his writings

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and view his photography

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on furaffinity.net,

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or on metassus.com.

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“Dear Sara”

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by Metassus April 10, 2020. My dearest

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Sara,

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I hope this email finds you well, my dearest.

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Thank you for my beautiful birthday card and your warm wishes.

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You are very artistic for one so young!

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Your Grandma says your drawing of me is so good she's going to replace my photo over the TV

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and put your picture there instead!

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I've placed your card on the mantlepiece as I promised,

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and it will remain there

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—as ever—until you send next year's card!

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Do convey all our love to mommy and daddy, and let them know that Grandma and I are both safe and well.

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We're staying indoors and puttering around the place, me getting under Grandma's paws all the time!

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Our next-door neighbours, you remember Mr. and Mrs. Collins from last summer, don’t you? Well,

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they collect our groceries each week at the store and drop them right to our door.

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Such wonderful people!

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It's lovely to know so many people are being kind to their friends and neighbours

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at this difficult time.

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I'm delighted to hear from mommy and daddy about how helpful and understanding you have been

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while you’re all at home all day.

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I know it's not easy to stay in the apartment all the time but you need to be patient until this virus passes.

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And hearing that you've made your own chores list and are continuing with your classes online while they do their work, well,

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that’s just so great!

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Your mommy says your baking skills are the best she's tasted

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and I can't wait to try out your breads and cakes for myself.

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It's such a shame we had to cancel our visit for next month.

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I know you were looking forward to it as much as Grandma and me,

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but don't worry too much.

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Once things settle down we'll hop on a plane and be with you …

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and yes, our favourite grand-daughter's birthday gift is all wrapped up here upon my desk.

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I promise if we can't get over by May 17th for your big day we'll

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ship it to you express,

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then you can open it in front of your webcam while we watch

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—almost as if we are there.

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But I'm still not going to ruin the surprise

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—you can't make me tell!

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Anyway your Grandma has made me promise I won't,

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and I'm not going to risk getting her mad.

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Your daddy let me know about your first couple of weeks in your new school.

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I’m sorry you only got to spend such a short time getting to know the school and your classmates.

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I know you were looking forward to it so much.

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Still, it must be fun to do all your schoolwork from home on your computer and do lessons with your teacher online

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—almost like having a school of your own on the kitchen table.

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Also, I'm so happy you made a new best-friend already.

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Your mommy said you and she chat together all the time on your computers.

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I am so pleased! Friends are very important, especially for a young lady.

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Best friends are very special because you share so much joy and pleasure with them.

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She also tells me the students there—and your best friend

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—are mostly humans.

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I'm sure this has been an amazing new experience for you,

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especially when you’re moving from a school that was mostly furs.

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Learning more about human culture will give you some interesting views, Sara, and provide you with wonderful new experiences:

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some will be very good, like your best friend;

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though some might be a little less so.

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However, if you are anything like the lady I know you to be

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—so much like your mommy and Grandma

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—you will meet each challenge with the same thoughtful courage

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and delicate kindness

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you share with them.

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Yes, I also heard about the way you were treated on your first days and must say I'm so proud of you.

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It's very hard to stand up for yourself with other kids you don’t know,

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and to explain yourself so well.

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Your teacher was very pleased with you, as was I.

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You know, after I spoke with mommy about that, I remembered some of my own school days,

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long ago. You remember you asked me what changing schools was like for me?

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I think I’ll tell you a little more so you can see why I’m so proud of you

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and how grown-up you acted.

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When I was a kit,

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there was one school for boys and one for girls.

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I think the grown-ups thought that we boys would be too rough and tumble for the girls.

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Remember, we would play football outside in the grass in all weathers

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and come back to class very muddy.

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Girls don't really like that, so I was told back then,

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though looking at your soccer team I think that's changed!

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One day when I was nine, just like you,

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a knock came to our classroom door. The rap

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-a-rap-rap was very distinctive.

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Our teacher, Miss Cheever,

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almost bounced from her chair as she dashed across our classroom

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to open the door for our headmaster.

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He was very tall, a stern, thin weasel, and we were all scared of him.

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You might not believe this, but teachers back then would smack anyone they caught misbehaving.

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Your grandfather was no angel and many times I had six smacks from a leather strap on each of my paws.

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It stung a lot!

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Our headmaster always carried his strap with him, so all the boys were careful not to get up to any mischief when he was around.

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On this particular day he peered around the schoolroom with his stern face

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and we all looked nervously back at him.

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Miss Cheever flitted around him anxiously

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and shushed any of us that dared to make a sound.

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She was a lioness and I thought she was very pretty.

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I told her once in class that I'd marry her when I grew up and she blushed.

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Fortunately, your grandmother decided rightly that I should marry her instead!

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I think Miss Cheever was just as terrified of our headmaster as we were,

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with his quick temper and awful reputation,

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though perhaps she wasn’t as scared of his leather strap. "Children," he announced, "you have a new classmate today. He—he is—" Our headmaster's unusual pause caused every

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ear in the room to point forward. He's what, we wondered? "—he is to be treated with respect and IF I HEAR OF ANYONE MISBEHAVING I WILL TAKE THEM TO THE OFFICE!" Well, my dear Sara,

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you can imagine

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how we reacted to that roar!

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I think Seamus Nash wet himself with fright!

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The two grown-ups went out into the corridor to discuss

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grown-up things, though they left the classroom door open.

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I recall I had a runny nose and forgot my kerchief that day.

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Being quite a scamp, I wiped my nose on the sleeve of my coat,

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something I know you would never ever do.

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Always bring your disposable tissues!

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"Whatcha think he'll be, Derrick?"

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I asked excitedly to the boy sitting at the next desk.

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Derrick was a foal and he was my best friend since we were five.

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Before he could reply, Miss Cheever's head appeared in the doorway to shush our noisy chatter.

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It was pointless because we went back to being rowdy boys when she disappeared again!

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I then realised I was the only student sitting at a desk with a spare chair.

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The new boy would have to sit beside me.

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That was exciting.

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I hoped he would be another tabby like me,

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so we could maybe start a gang, or go cycling to the park.

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Eventually, Miss Cheever returned and told us to be quiet,

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then introduced our new classmate.

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When he stepped in,

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the entire room went silent.

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He was a human. Now, you wouldn't understand what a big thing that was back then, but our school was almost all furs.

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There were very few human boys in our town

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and only one or two in our entire school.

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He looked terrified

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as Miss Cheever put her paw on his shoulder

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and introduced him to everyone, just as I imagine your teacher introduced you to your new class last month

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(though I bet you weren't as scared!)

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"Boys," she said, "this is William Casey.

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William has just moved into town to live with his grandmother in Bright Hill.

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Hill." I was delighted. I also lived in Bright Hill, with my auntie.

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I thought William and I had a lot in common already.

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Miss Cheever led him down to sit at my desk, so I had to move my books and things into a smaller space, but it was nice to be at the centre of attention.

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William had that nice human smell,

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and an interesting face that looked almost like an elf in a storybook

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—all freckles and red hair on his head.

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I shared some of my chocolate with him when the teacher wasn't looking.

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But then some of the other kids from my classroom

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called him nasty names at lunch time.

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As you found out, Sara, some children can be cruel and enjoy making fun of others.

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It's not because they don't like other kids,

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but because they don't really know them.

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I didn't really know William either,

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but because I shared my chocolate with him and we sat at the same desk

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he stuck to me like glue that day.

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We ate my bag of gobstoppers while we sat on the playground wall,

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talking about where we lived.

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I liked him. He was a little slow at reading out loud and had to use his finger to hold his place.

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He told me that was because his dad travelled a lot

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and he had to go with him, so he missed a lot of school.

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His grandmother insisted he should settle down and go to school properly,

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so he was going to live here.

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Miss Cheever asked me to help him out with reading exercises,

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which I loved. I felt like I was kind of his teacher.

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Everyone at our school had a nickname.

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(Would you believe mine was

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'Tiger', because of my stripes,

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even if now I'm less marmalade and more grey!)

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I made a nickname for William: 'Watchdog'

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—a great nickname for any boy,

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but kind of cute for a human in a mainline fur school.

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He loved it! We played at being spies and soldiers in the playground,

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where I would be an important secrets courier,

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and William would be the watchdog security officer, protecting our valuable secrets.

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Alright, they were not really valuable

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—all we had was the list of everyone in our class and some silly new nicknames we made up.

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It was great fun

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—I'm certain you get just as much enjoyment with games like that!

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I'm also certain you might think William and I both grew up and became friends for life.

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Sadly, my dear Sara,

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it did not work out like that, and this is the reason why I wish to share this story with you.

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One rainy and windy afternoon,

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a week or two after William became my friend, my auntie came to the school gate to collect me

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and bring me home under her umbrella. I lived

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only a couple of minutes from the school, so I usually ran home.

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William's grandmother had not yet arrived either,

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so he was waiting at the gate with me.

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When my auntie saw him,

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a funny look crossed her face and her nose wrinkled.

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Her tail started to flick, so I knew something was wrong.

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I politely introduced William to her

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and she said nothing

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—nothing at all. It was peculiar.

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My auntie was rarely rude and it upset me.

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When we reached home,

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she stood me in front of her and asked about my new friend.

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I told her all about William and the great fun we had.

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"Joseph," she said, looking as serious as only grown-ups can be,

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"William is a human.

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You should not be playing with him. He's ...

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dirty." I tried to explain that humans were just like us, but she ordered me to stay away from him,

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and that was that.

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Sara, what I did next was so wrong

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I want you to pay very close attention and remember it.

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The very next day, back at school,

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William came up to me before class,

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said "Watchdog ready for mission, sir!" and saluted like a soldier, just as we did most days.

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I gave an annoyed flick of my tail and wrinkled my nose,

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copying what my auntie had done.

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"William, I'm not allowed to play with you anymore.

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You're human and you're dirty."

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His face went pale and he looked terribly hurt.

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Believing I was doing exactly the right thing,

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doing what my auntie had told me to do, I added

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"Don't talk to me anymore.

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Tabbies shouldn't talk to dirty humans."

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He started to cry and ran off towards the gym hall.

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I didn't see him for the rest of the day and I felt disturbed about it, but I didn't know why.

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He sat quietly on his own at a bench at the back of the room after that.

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Two weeks later, William left our school.

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I found out later that his father heard of what happened

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and moved him away.

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I never saw, or heard from, William the Watchdog again.

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I tell this story to you for three reasons, my sweet little one. Firstly,

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to show you that—occasionally

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—grown-ups can be very wrong,

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and believe things they know in their hearts are wrong because it makes them feel better than other people.

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This is called 'prejudice',

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and it causes a lot of trouble all over the world.

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It usually happens when one group of people think another group is not as good as the first,

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only because they look different, or live in a different place, or have a different language.

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My auntie looked down on William's people only because they were humans.

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She didn't even know them.

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Secondly, because I would like you to think about this little story of mine if you ever begin to think

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you are better than anyone else

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—be they tabby, human, wolf, horse, or whatever.

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Always remember, dear Sara, that people are the same inside,

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no matter what shape their face,

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what length their whiskers, or the colours in their fur, or if they have no fur.

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Lastly, and most importantly,

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think about how you would feel later if you ever treated someone like I treated William.

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To say things without thinking can cause deep hurt for no reason.

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William is probably an old man like me now.

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He might have forgotten about what happened.

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I hope he has. But I haven't,

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and to be very honest with you,

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I don't think I ever shall.

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I still feel awful about how I treated my friend

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and wish I could go back

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and make it better, but I can't.

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My beautiful granddaughter,

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I will always feel shame for how I hurt William. Even now, sixty years later,

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I still feel so sad when I think about what I said

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and how I lost my friend.

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Make certain you never hurt anyone like that,

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Sara. Anyway, that is enough for now.

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I shall finish my email here, as your Grandma is calling me.

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Mr. and Mrs. Collins have just dropped off our shopping, and I asked them to sneak in some treats for me that I must hide before Grandma sees them!

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Remember, sweetheart, your Grandpa and Grandma love you

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dearly and always will,

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and we shall chat with you all on the computer as usual at the weekend.

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With all my love to you,

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Your loving Grandpa.

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This was “Dear Sara” by Metassus,

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read for you by Khaki,

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your faithful fireside companion.

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Thank you for listening to The Voice of Dog