The Finis of Folly

The sequel to Ashley's Folly

As the top cat and animal resident of our household, I, Henri of Twin Brook must keep a wary eye on every creature which lives within these walls. My eyes spend more time on the antics and movements of our dog Ashley, who is totally irresponsible.

It is no wonder then, that when she and her pal Stella the brat cat kept prowling the front lawn, their faces inches from the newly spawned grass, that I became suspicious. Everyday I followed them. Everyday, I inspected every blade of grass, sniffing and scratching for a clue which would enlighten me as to what the two were conspiring. Days went by. Then weeks went by. Ashley became more agitated. She became depressed. She even refused to walk around the front lawn, sniffing and pawing the ground. Whatever she had anticipated had not come to fruition. I was a happy cat. I meowed with glee! My gleeness however did not last. Yesterday, right after she had had her breakfast, Ashley dashed outside, Stella at her side, and began to inspect the lawn. She began to yip and yap, to squeal and squeak, to bark and bawl! She was excited. She was ecstatic! That was really a bad thing!

She raced inside, jumping around the kitchen as if she had sat on a bee! "Oh, Henri! You've got to come outside and see our beautiful front lawn. Our persons will be so happy!"

Naturally, I followed the mutt outside. Slowly, I opened my eyes. Slowly I opened my eyes and beheld a sea of yellow blossoms. I opened my eyes and beheld a sea of yellow dandelions! Not one, not two, not three but thousands of them! There were thousands of them packed together, like a golden carpet! "Aren't they just the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" gushed Ashley, wagging her tail enthusiastically.

I shrugged my shoulders. "If you like the color yellow, I guess they are okay," meowed. "Exactly how did this happen? We have always had a few dandelions on the lawn but never a few thousand of the weeds!"
My friend Samantha was talking to some of her squirrel friends and she told them how the seeds I had ordered had been sent back to the seed factory. They felt very sorry for me so they gathered up all the dandelion seeds they could find and saved them for me."

"Ashley," I growled, "dandelions don't seed until late spring or early summer so how did the squirrels collect those seeds unless they did that last summer?"
Ashley avoided my eyes. She studied her paws. "I don't know," she whimpered. "They just happened to have them in stock."
"In stock? What do you mean in stock? It sounds as if those squirrels were running a store," I hissed.

Ashley continued to stare at her feet. Occasionally she would bite at one of her toenails."There is a store called Robert, Robert, Rudolph and Sons. They sell seeds and stuff. They told me that dandelions are good for humans because you can use the leaves in salads. I think our persons will be very happy about that."
"I've heard of them," I replied. They are a squirrel family that went into business a few seasons ago. I understand that they gathered up all the acorns last fall and when the other squirrels couldn't find any, they sold them back to the community at a very high price! If you were dealing with those reprobates, you should be ashamed of yourself, Ashley! By the way, how much did they charge you for the dandelion seeds?"

Ashley continued to whine and stare at her feet. "I had to give them two big bags of peanuts. I stole them from the supply in the basement. Do you think our persons will give me a lot of presents as a token of thanks?" Think again dear, silly dog....

Naturally, our persons discovered the carpet of dandelions decorating our front lawn. Did you know that humans can growl, whine, hiss and spit? None of us cats knew this and certainly the dog Ashley was not aware of this. I warn all of you kitties and mutts whenever you heard the howls or hissing of a disappointed human being, run for your life! And never, never, never think that a front lawn of golden dandelions will make your persons happy!

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