Marcy, Louie and the Runaway Parakeet

1

Breakfast

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     "Sniff, sniff, sniff-sniff," Marcy opened one little puppy-dog eye. She looked over and saw her brother lying on his back with his tongue hanging out. Opening both eyes wide, Marcy kicked Louie in the face. “Louie,.... Louie! Is that bacon?”

     "Hey, what did you do that for? I’m sleeping! I don’t kno…. Yup! That’s bacon!" He came to and quickly jumped off the bed. Marcy followed him by leaping off the bed and landing on his back. Flattening Louis to the floor, Marcy ran into the kitchen.

     “You're such a jerk,” Louie said as he stood back up on all four paws and walked into the kitchen, yawning.

     It was 7:15 in the morning, and breakfast was the task at hand. Marcy and Louie sat quietly in their little beds. Their cute button eyes moved back and forth as they watched Nancy and Jeff Carlson prepare breakfast. Jeff poured coffee into two mugs and set them on the table. Nancy sat down, took a couple of sips, and then reached down and picked up Marcy with one big swoop.

     “What? Why? Ooooh, here we go again,” Marcy squirmed.

     “Now…, today, I picked out a special bow for you, Miss Marcy. It's magenta!” Nancy explained, as she affixed it to Marcy’s top-notch. Holding Marcy in front of her face and kissing her nose, “You look beau-ti-ful.”

     “You look beeaauuuutiful,” Louie mocked from the floor.

     “Shut it!” Marcy barked, then gave Nancy a half-hearted lick on the nose.

     “Elevator down,” Nancy chuckled, placing Marcy on the floor and reaching for Louie.      “You’re next, my handsome boy. For you, I have a cowboy bandana,” she said, tying the scarf around Louie’s neck.  

     “Ha, not so funny now?” Marcy teased.

Louie licked Nancy on the cheek, fully intending to remove his new bandana as soon as everyone left for work. For now, all he wanted was breakfast.

Toast, eggs, and irresistible sizzling bacon were placed on the table. In a scurry of talking and activity, the morning ritual was complete. Louie looked over at Macy, “Marcy, you’re drooling again, gross.”

     “Oh, hush. I'm doing my puppy dog eyes, so I can get a taste of that mouth-watering bacon,” she replied. Finally, what felt like a million doggy years later, Nancy broke a piece of bacon into little pieces and put it in two bowls.

      “We are leaving for work, you two. You be good today,…Marcy” emphasizing Marcy.” She gave each of them a rub as she set the bowls down. When they dove into their bowls, their butts started to shove each other side to side. They began to argue.

     “Move over, Louie,” Marcy demanded.

     “No, you move over, Marcy,” he mumbled, accidentally spitting bacon at Marcy’s face.

     “You’re such a pig,” Marcy complained. Marcy and Louie were so busy fighting and gobbling bacon that they didn’t even notice that Nancy and Jeff left for work.

Louie looked up when his bowl was empty. “Did they leave?”

     “Guess so,” Marcy chuckled. Catching a toenail on her bow and pulling it down to get a better look, she continued, “What should we do today to amuse ourselves besides losing this ridiculous bow?” she asked, letting the bow spring back atop her head.

     “First, I think we should let Rally out. I hear him squawking,” Louie motioned.

 

 

2

Rally

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     Every workday for the past year, Louie and Marcy would let Rally the parakeet out of his cage. It was fun to play with Rally. He was always up for a good chase. Little did they know that today’s chase would be a challenge. Marcy carefully jumped up on the kitchen chair and then onto the table. With a little hop, she was up on the shelf next to Rally’s cage. With a bat of her paw, the latch slid open, and out popped Rally, who was waiting patiently. “There you go, boy,” Marcy said proudly.

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