Howlidays

Sailor here.

A few days ago in the dark of night, Mom woke me up, saying, �Sailor, are you all right?� Huh? I was asleep. How was I to know if I was all right or not? She said that I woke her up howling. I was howling? She said it was that eerie sound that a dog makes when its person dies, so we checked to see if Mom were still alive. She was. She concluded that I must have been having a dream. Darn, I think I missed it; I�d like to know what my dream was all about.

Speaking of howling, Zoe is spending the night. Not that Zoe howls or anything, but her parents are going to a Pack Howl and thought it would me much more fun for Zoe to be here than to be home alone. Zoe agreed. Mom says that the Pack Howl is actually called the O-purr-a but that there won�t be any cats in attendance. I find this a bit confusing. Dog language is so much easier to understand.

Mom says that going to the Pack Howl is a ritual in itself. Katy and Erik dress up wearing mostly black and right before going out the front door, they take these sticky rollers and roll each other�s clothing front and back. Zoe hair comes off on the rollers. Then they walk down the front steps, debating which car to take, and usually drive away in the car with the least dog hair. I love it that dog hair can rule one�s social life even if Zoe has to stay at home.

I think Zoe should get to go to the event, too, since pack howls are for the whole pack. It�s the chance to yell, �I am here, where are you?� and get the answer, �I am here, right where you left me!� But Mom says that at this Howl, the audience only listens and does not join in. I find this strange. I mean, how can you go to a howl and NOT join in? I would find that physically and psychically impossible. She does say that at Christmas time, a lot of people howl along themselves at something called Handle�s Mess. Then everybody gets to sing the Howlalulleja Chorus. This sounds more like it.

Katy and Erik love the O-purr-a because Katy is studying voice and howling O-purr-a. Mom says I have to call it singing. Studying voice means that she sings and takes singing lessons and practices singing at home. Zoe usually joins in and promptly gets put outside. Katy says that Zoe is not always right on key. Josie runs and hides in the linen closet instead of purring along. What a missed opportunity. If I were there, Zoe and I could study voice in the back yard and we�d even let Josie join in.

Sailor and Zoe, who will go outside to howl at the moon