Mood: chatty
Topic: "I'll Take a Vowel"
Frodo and Sam found Prissy in the North Farthing Animal Shelter. She was on "death row," and sat apart from all the other dogs, as if she had become resigned to her fate. Part dachshund, and part beagle, she was relatively small, short-haired, and certainly no threat to any of the neighbors in the treehouse complex. After she was spayed, the name followed quickly for the character in GONE WITH THE WIND whose most famous line was "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies, Miss Scarlett."
Oprah Winfrey appeared on local TV as a newscaster, and Pat Sajak was the weatherman on the NBC affiliate. In fact, Pat Sajak lived in the same treehouse complex as Frodo and Sam, and therein lies our tale for this evening, or should that be tail?
Prissy was perfectly adapted for treehouse living, but when Frodo returned from his daily trek to Mount Doom, it was time to cut loose in the parking lot for a countless number of unrestrained figure eights, and a game or two of chase the pet into the woods and out again. It was generally about this time of day that the TV weatherman would emerge from his limb of the treehouse, in preparation for his sojourn to Mount Doom. Prissy soon found an open door an open invitation to visit this heretofore unknown Hobbit.
Frodo's neighbor got to know Prissy on a first name basis. This gentle Hobbit knew where she lived, had learned to recognize Frodo on sight, but the Hobbits never even exchanged names.
When Frodo and Sam found their way to the Shire, Prissy had reached the stage where figure eights and chase the pet into the woods and out again had become historical events. Her favorite activity was visiting Katie and Jenny next door to see if she could sneak inside and eat the platefuls of food left for Charley, the feline philanderer.
One afternoon, Frodo, returning once again from Mount Doom, was summoned next door to retrieve the ancient one from Katie and Jenny's living room. There the three of them sat, side-by-side watching WHEEL OF FORTUNE, which unbeknownst to Frodo was Katie and Jenny's favorite show. Prissy, it seemed, was watching the screen intently, as if she were trying to guess the unidentified, partially-spelled word. At least, that is the way it appeared.
Frodo told Katie and Jenny about Prissy's acquaintance with the star of their favorite show, and they were duly impressed. For many days thereafter the three friends would gather together, when their Mothers were not paying attention, to expand their vocabularies as Vanna spun the wheel, and Pat played Host.
When finally Frodo and Sam had to prepare a final and permanent home in the Shire for Prissy, Katie and Jenny must have been watching from a window in their house next door. When the Service was completed, Frodo completed a tasteful monument to mark the days of her life, and he retreated to a lost evening.
The return from Mount Doom that next day was particularly ominous. To visit a monument to such a gallant heart hardly seemed fitting activity at that time of day. As Frodo neared the monument, Sam in hand, he noticed the hand-drawn and colored cards. They read, "Good Bye Prissy. We Miss You and We Love You. Katie and Jenny P.S. We Will Think of You Every Time They Spin the Wheel."
Frodo thinks every card should have a P.S.