♫Thank you for being my friends♫
♫Traveled down the road and back again♫
♫Your hearts are true, you're Basil's mom and dad!♫

♫I'm not ashamed to say ♫
♫ hope it always will stay this way♫
♫My hat is off, won't you stand up and take a bow♫

♫And if you threw a party♫
♫Invited everyone you knew♫
♫you would see the biggest gift would be from me♫
♫And the card attached would say:♫
♫"Thank You for being my Friends!"♫
 

Basil's mom and dad came to visit this weekend.  It's funny, they don't look like him.  I suspect he might be adopted but I don't think I should be the one to tell him.  I wish Basil and Skye could have come too.  We would have rocked the house with the Pep Band!  We could have stayed up late eating popcorn and rawhides!  I could have done my Tiny Tim imitation.  Next time, maybe. 

AnyLoo, Basil's mom and dad are really cool.  I think they probably wanted to take me home with them.  Who wouldn't, really.  They liked Little Bit okay, too, but, well, once you meet Lyle, it is hard for other dogs to measure up.  I have to send a big Whigle wag-n-wiggle to Basil and his mom and dad and Skye and her mom for being just so darn wonderful.  Super-extra-ultra-beyond-my-imagination wonderful.  If you know them, you know what I mean.

Skye is helping me take the campaign to a big victory.  Thanks for campaigning, Colby!  Everyone, practice your voting!  Vote once, vote twice, vote three times for Lyle!  Remember, a vote for Lyle is a vote for me.  And I stand for CHICKEN!

In my spare time I have been working on my Great American Novel.  It's going to be a chapter book.  I thought about making it a picture book but I already had such a good ending I didn't want to waste it.  Special thanks to Princess Morgan Anna Maria for all the help...keep it comin', I'm not done yet!

Grab yourself a bowl of water and a biscuit to munch.  This is a page turner.

Chapter 1
    It was a warm evening and the air smelled of chicken.  Settling down to a fresh bowl of kibble, Lyle felt that all was right in the world.  “Ah,” he thought, “what could be better?”  And it was true.  After all, Lyle knew he was the breed-standard Whigle, devastatingly handsome, loved and respected by all.  Dogs and even cats from around the world requested his sage advice on a broad range of topics.  He was a powerful legislator on Capitol Hill and rumors of a presidential bid were already spreading like fleas. 
    Lyle could not possibly have anticipated the dangers that awaited him in the days ahead, nor how thoroughly his courage and resolve would be tested.

Chapter 2
    Miles away in a secluded corner of a dilapidated shack, a lone dog sighed as he gazed on his meager kibble ration.  A lump came to his throat as he thought about how the cruel hand of fate had brought him to this lonely place.  Once he had been part of a pack.  He had known brothers and sisters, there had been plenty of kibble and even the occasional nibble of chicken.  But fate had separated him from his family, and although he still bore a remarkable physical resemblance to one brother at least, there was no longer any other connection to the family he had known. 
    His belly growled, and the kibble looked inviting.  He unwillingly turned away from it, knowing that it would have to last him the rest of the week.  It was because his back was turned that he did not see the drip, drip, drip of an oddly glowing greenish liquid coming from the ceiling and collecting in his tiny kibble bowl.  He had never ventured to the upper level of the shack, but knew from rumors he had heard from other strays in the area that to do so would be to risk great peril.

To be continued...