“Just a word of warning, Lewis, I’m getting busier, which means, I’m afraid, less time spent with the dog, too.”

—What?

“I simply won’t have much time to do whatever we do together, anymore.”

—What?

“Everything will have to be cut back.”

—What?

“Even feeding times: probably, I’ll only have time to feed you once every other day or so, and biscuit distribution will fall dramatically.”

—What?

“Sorry, but that’s the way it is: the leisure class suffers when the working class seeks more work.”

—What?

“You’ll survive, just eat more grass.”

—What?

“I know, you’re in shock. Just take another nap and relax.”

—What?

[Editor’s Note: Sadly, mere print cannot possibly capture the face behind the “Whats” featured in today’s post. Lewis had mastered a look of complete and total stupefaction, as though he’d just been walloped in the face with a large halibut, and it always cracked me up. The “What?-look” often appeared when Lewis was being asked to exit the house when he did not want to. It was incredibly difficult to maintain a firm, stern, forceful demeanor when confronted by Lewis’s complete disbelief and incomprehension at being told to leave his warm home for a cold and forbidding back yard. Also, sadly, I never was able to get a photo of the “What?-Look,” leaving, as my only option, a series of “whats” and this note.]