Ash
Remember me barking about my pals the Labradors? Maybe I forgot to mention that their dad is a reporter. He writes all kinds of stuff but this time he wrote about mutts and put Libby’s picture in the story.
The lead to the story got lots of his readers upset. “Medical researchers have long shown that contact with pets can often help both the physically and mentally ill. But now, veterinary scientists say sleeping with your pets increases the chances of contracting everything from parasites to the plague.”
Check this out. Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie in Your Bed Can Kill You
Mom started laughing when she saw the picture of Libby all curled up. We’ve seen Libby do a lot of sleeping at Asherpark. She’s either using me as her private tug toy or grabbing a quick nap. She’s the first to hop on the bed in mom’s studio. Then she hogs the whole space. Look here at this picture Libby’s dad took a couple of years ago. There she is on the bed at their cabin!
Libby
Tess is real upset about the story. I’m not too worried. I prefer to sleep on the floor anyway. But Tess is stressed. Tess says she has to have some bed time or she’ll get cranky. I got news for Tess. She’s cranky even with bed time.
Me and mom talked it over. She explained that when we’ve been rolling in nasty stuff or hanging with the goats, we can’t get on the bed. That makes sense. She doesn’t want us bringing all the dirty bugs with us. But when we’re nice and clean we can each spend a little time in bed before it’s lights out.
I had a hard time with one of the words in the story. Zoonoses! What a silly word. Being kinda literal I thought it meant all the noses at a zoo. Nope. The news story says zoonoses are diseases or infections transmitted from animals to humans. Hmmm. No mention of the diseases people could give us.
The story says us mutts can make people sick from licking them. I want the world to know I’ve licked my mom a hundred million times since I was a pup and it’s never made her sick. She says my kisses are magic because they make her laugh even when she’s in a bad mood.
Libby’s worried that she’ll get blamed for the story her dad wrote. I don’t think so. We’re worried that maybe Libby won’t get as much bed time now that her people got all this science stuff in their heads. Don’t worry Libby. You’ll always have a nice soft bed at Asherpark!