Facing the afterbath

Dad changed my smell-name back to flower-puppy smell again today. It's bad to have a weak smell-name that no other doggie will respect. And it's strange to have a new smell-name that is so different and doesn't feel like it fits. But the worst thing is that my smell name isn't gone. It just belongs to the big white bowl now.

Right after my bath,... well right after Dad lifted me up out of the big white bowl that I cannot get out of on my own AND after Dad rubbed me all over with the sweet-flower cloths I did what you have to do. I started trying to cover my new smell-name with anything I could find. I rubbed myself on the floor downstairs. (There was a hint of peanut butter here just yesterday!) Then I rubbed myself by the front door. (People bring in the best smells on their shoes then leave them right here!) And I rubbed myself in the all-the-way-upstairs floor (because nothing else is working so far!) And then I rolled in the crunchy dead leaves on my balcony... Finally, something! It's not the best smell-name, but anything is better than flower-puppy!!

And then I went back inside to see if there were any even better smells I could put on. And that's when I smelled something that couldn't be right... I smelled... ME! I smelled my old smell name! Where was I coming from?! Was there another me?!! No there's just one me! But maybe I can find where Dad put my old smell name and put it back on!! So I chased my smell to where it was the loudest and I saw... Dad! Dad was in the big white bowl... but I still smelled me!!! So Dad wasn't just trying to take my smell name away, he was stealing it for himself!!!

But that wasn't right. Because when he got out of the big white bowl, he smelled like a hint of lavender is all. And I could STILL smell my old name the loudest! It was the bowl that smelled like me. The bowl that is too big for me to get in and out of. It was just sitting there holding the smell I wanted the most in the one place I want to go the least! So I started to sing my sad-bark song.

And that's when Dad came in. (And I got out of there FAST! I'm not going back in that thing AGAIN!!) And Dad used a spitting bottle to spit all over the white bowl. And it smelled like sharp-pains-and-far-away-death. And he rinsed it all down with the water that has no smells and made my old smell-name all the way gone.

Or almost all the way... I can still smell whisper-of-me in the big white bowl. It fell into the hole where the smelless-water goes and it is stuck down there now. And when I sniff me in there, I hear the big white bowl saying that one of these times it will take the rest of me and keep me in its hole too. And when Mom and Dad leave me in the downstairs all day I will have to smell the big white bowl whispering this to me the whole time. And that will be the worst!