Work in Progress

This is a chronicle of my darling little Princess Squeaker.

November eleventh two thousand and nine, in the middle of the night I arrived third in my litter. Immediately after mom bit the umbilical cord, a fluffy cloth enveloped me, picked me up and rubbed me all over to help me breathe. A bit of thick fluid shot out my nostrils as air finally rushed in my lungs. A voice hummed and cooed as I was dried and lowered back to the warm side of my mom and siblings, and she finished cleaning me. The smell of my first meal drove me on searching in the dark against her warm side and comforting smell for a teat to satisfy my hunger. Plaintive cries issued from my throat, high and shrill as the cooing voice reacted, and gently a hand guided me to my goal. The smell was not the same as my mother’s, but still comforting, and the sound of the voice was oddly soothing as it spoke my first name.

“Easy my little Squeaker, I’ll give you some help pretty girl.” Though the words meant nothing to me, the sound was of warmth and safety, the gentle love of a guardian and provider.

Food was my first priority, but I could not get enough and my protests filled the circle of my new world. Soon the gentle voice made a sound I later learned was laughter as I was helped to another nipple. Finally able to still the hunger inside, peaceful bliss came over me and I slept.

The next few days were filled with sleeping, searching for food, then searching for a comfortable place to sleep. I learned the smell of my mother, siblings, our bed, and the ever-present guardian that watched over us, comforted us when we were distressed and helped us find both food and sleeping space. This mysterious creature lifted us from wherever we had managed to get stuck, held us gently, murmured comfortingly until we fell asleep, or set us next to our mother so that we could eat.

Light began to filter through the coverings over my eyes and blurry shapes began to manifest in my first views of the world. It was much bigger than I imagined, and we were in a tub, a relatively small section of the room around us. My sister managed to climb out of our tub a couple of times, but the guardian creature always returned her to the safety of our home. My legs were able to hold my weight once in a while, and I tottered around, trying to see all I could see. My brother and sisters mouthed me, and I mouthed them back, with the nubs of my teeth that itched in my gums. It was a great game of ‘chews’ that we sometimes played with mom and our guardian.

Our mother was a stoic lady though, and rarely played back, but our guardian made a sound we learned was laughter, and would tickle our bellies. Oh what a wonderful feeling!

When our eyes were fully open, our guardian moved us from the tub to a much larger area with slick flooring that was covered in a layer of shredable stuff that was fun to chew on. Twice a day the guardian would change the stuff we eliminated on, and once a day would put us back in the tub to wash the floor, then lay down more stuff for us to chew on. There were cool toys that tickled our gums and squeaked if we bit them hard enough! I never got tired of those! There were others that just felt good to gnaw on, and once, when I grabbed a hold of one, my sister Moon grabbed a hold of another end, and boy was it fun to try to get it back! This began a whole new game for us! But my favorite game was trying to follow our guardian out of the area we were confined to.

She was so fascinating, loving and fun, it made me so sad every time she left us, and I cried at the gate until I figured out how to get out. She would laugh, pick me up and carry me around for a while. Her hand on my head sent waves of warmth through my entire body, and when she rubbed my belly, all was right with the world! The love was mutual, and even at my young age, I recognized that I was the favored one.