The yellow cat with the long striped tail stood nose to nose with Mamie Chin, his sharp front teeth pointed down and glistening a shiny white in the morning brightness. “YOU”, he asked in a chuckle, “YOU are all that they sent to face all of US?” Again he chuckled as he turned back to the others he had brought into the great yard, nodding his head in superiority. “Is that FEAR I smell??” he said, turning his attention back to Mamie Chin, “ I mean, really… ONE of you, that’s all? This is all that the mighty Yard that Goes on Forever can offer in defense of itself? One measly, young, silly, small and well over her head little pup? Honestly, I had hoped for more. This is going to be too easy. Where is the sport?”
In a show of superior numbers and strength, the cat gang formed a single line and stood side-by-side. One by one they sneered, showing their sharp teeth and steely glares. A mostly black cat with a white stripe down his nose tossed a leaf into the air and quickly cut it into strips with one effortless swing of his paw.
Mamie Chin stood her ground, looking down the line of cats as she tried to gauge their weakness. “I am not impressed,” she said flatly and with no emotion, “I am not frightened”, she fibbed, as her entire insides trembled with nerves, “and… I AM MOST CERTAINLY NOT ALONE!!”
With that, Mamie Chin quickly moved to a spot on her right that was clearly marked with leaves in the shape of an “X”. She closed her eyes for a moment, took a very deep breath and whirled around in one dynamic and long Chin spin that seemed to last forever. Coming out of the spin she was able to stop facing away from the cats and into the corner of the yard where two pieces of the Tall Wooden Fence joined together and formed a right angle. In a single motion she went from spin to still and suddenly she woo’ed… woo’ed loudly and long. The sound of the single small dog raced from her mouth, through the yard, bounced off one wooden wall and the angle of the fence forced a second bounce off the other angled wall. This turned the sound of a single dog into the echoed sound of many dogs wooing at one time. Mamie Chin had formed a Chin Army from where there was only one! The wall of woo’s bounced from fence to ground, around and off trees and bushes, through blades of dewy grass and, finally, rushed past the still wooing Oldest One and hit the gang of cats right in their collective smug faces.
The orange and white leader of the cats jumped up in the air, his fur standing high on his back and his tail five times it’s normal size, “WHAT??? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?” He shouted, not understanding how one small dog could make so much noise.
“Oh… you orange fool… I am not alone. I am NEVER alone in the Yard that Goes on Forever!!!” Mamie shouted in a very loud, deep and scary voice, “I have the spirits of all my Chincestors with me… they live on here, even AFTER the light behind their eyes has gone dim. You thought I was one,” Mamie laughed the most frightening laugh she could muster; “I am an ARMY OF INVISIBLE CHIN… and THEY WILL DEAL WITH YOU FROM BEYOND!” She woo’ed again, the noise firing off the wooden walls and back into the yard, filling the cats ears with noise from all directions.
“NOW, MY TROOPS… NOW!!!” shouted a voice from above. General Squeak summoned the might Squirrel Army, who had all snuck into various pre-planned positions above the cats during their display of superiority. It was the Army of the Yard that Goes on Forever that held the higher ground and superior number on this day, “NOW… ATTACK!!!” the General urged from his lofty post, high up in the trees.
Mamie continued to woo, her throat hurting and her lungs burning from the effort. Just as she thought she was spent, the troops of the Squirrel Army began their attack, reigning acorns and nuts and rocks and twigs down towards the ground below them. The cat gang was not only barraged with sound but now they were being pelted with debris and they did not know where it was coming from. It seemed like there were one hundred invisible dogs attacking them from all sides and all places.
“THE SPIRITS ARE ATTACKING US!!! SHE WAS RIGHT!!!” screamed a tabby cat as it turned quickly around and scrambled for the broken part of the Tall Wooden Fence.
“LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!!” followed a big, bruising all feline who was suddenly panicked by the commotion.
One by one, they all turned and ran, including their leader… who ran like the wind and through the hold in the fence, catching his tail on an exposed nail and leaving a bit of orange fur behind. As the last inches of his body disappeared into the Real World, he shouted back to Mamie Chin, “We will be back!!! This isn’t over, DOG!!!”
Exhausted and hoarse, Mamie Chin stopped her wooing. The continuous rainfall of yard pieces halted and it became very quiet… but only for a moment. The newfound silence was quickly replaced by shouts from the trees, shouts of “We did it”, “It’s amazing”, “Did you see them run”, “What a team” and “Hail Squeak… long live the General”. The noise was thunderous.
General Squeak scampered down out of the tree and ran over to Mamie Chin, a wide squirrel grin spreading from his puffy cheek and past his buck teeth to the other side of his round face.
“We did it, Oldest One… BY NUTS… WE DID IT!!!” The joyous General continued, “I thought we could do it but I never imagined it would be THIS great!” He giggled like a squirrel child who found its first nut on the ground. “My hats off to you, my dear… hats off, I tell you! What a woo job you did. And they angle we determined, it couldn’t have been better.” He was so happy he was almost lighter than air, “What a day, WHAT A DAY!!! You’re Aunt would be very proud of you… you were absolutely, positively, undeniably and overwhelmingly FIERCE!!”
Mamie Chin sat down, looked up at the squirrel, nodded her head… and cried. Tears rolled from her round eyes and down her cheeks as she shook like a leaf. The emotion of the events, her fear of the cats, and the drain of the wooing that long and hard… all of these things caused her to weep uncontrollably and this outpour of feelings shocked the General.
He paced back and forth in front of Mamie, reaching out to her and then pulling his paws back. He didn’t know how to consol a Chin… if a member of his Army was to act this way, he would simply make them run from tree to tree or gather nuts, maybe jump from a tree to a fence. This was not a member of his Army, though. This was a small, female, afraid and lonely Japanese Chin. He paced more, stopping to stare at her… his eyes darting quickly from place to place as not to draw attention to his concern.
“Now, now… Oldest One… it is over now… buck up there… stiff upper lip… you know… solid as a nut cover…” Squeak meant well but lacked the words to make it better. That is, until he thought back to a time when the real Oldest One had come across a very frightened Butch and Mamie Chin sitting on the big red deck all alone. He remembered her words as she calmed the weeping little girl that had recently turned into this grown up Chin before him. Squeak took a deep breath and looked at Mamie, speaking only these words to her, “Child” Squeak said softly, “Why are you crying?” He continued, “I do not know where you were born, little one. I do not know where your Auntie is, nor can I promise you that I will find your brother. All I can tell you, child, is as long as I am here… nothing will harm you.”
Mamie Chin stopped crying, she looked up at the Squirrel who was standing in front of her, she cocked her head to one side and she remembered the last time someone spoke those words to her. It was then that she truly realized that the Squirrel and the Chin were joined together. Joined in life and lot by this great Yard that Goes on Forever and the Old Brown house. She smiled a weak smile at the amazingly kind old Squirrel and nodded her head yes.
“You were there… weren’t you?” she asked him, quite plainly. “When Auntie Sophie first found us… you were there.” Squeak looked her in the eyes and she noticed softness in his eyes that she had never seen there before.
“Yes, child, I was there,” he confided in her, “I have always been close, watching… learning… knowing… being a part of your life. We are here, in this place, together. Our kind has always been here, together, for as long as either of our bloodlines can remember.”
“Then, you do not hate us?” Mamie asked, not quite understanding their relationship.
“Oh heavens no, Oldest One,” the General quickly answered. “You are simply know-it-all dogs… we don’t hate you, we just have learned to tolerate you here, in our home.”
“Our Home…” Mamie echoed with a smile, the tears almost gone. At that moment, the most amazing thing ever seen by nobody but a bunch of squirrels and a single, lonely chin suddenly happened. Mamie Chin reached out and pulled the General of the Squirrel Army close to her and hugged his round middle for a very long time.
Squeak was shocked for a moment, his body very stiff. He had never been this close to any Chin before… after all, they were necessary but annoying with their “chin this” and “chin that”. He had never considered them anything more or less than a requirement for normal life here in at the Old Brown House. As Mamie held on and squeezed him tightly, the General relaxed and, maybe… although Chin history is fuzzy on this point… maybe he hugged back a little.
After five Chin minutes (which, strangely enough was equal to five peoples minutes) Squeak cleared his throat and pulled away. “And THAT is quite enough of that… my dear,” he said, turning away slightly to mask his smile.
“Yes General,” Mamie said, still smiling.
“After all,” Squeak continued, “There is a yard to clean up. And we won’t do it alone, you know. This is as much YOUR mess as it is ours.”
Mamie nodded her head, a fake serious look on her face, “Oh YES General.”
They walked, side by side, over to the mostly closed section of the Tall Wooden Fence. Once there they could see where the gang of cats could still come in to harass them. Squeak looked over the damage to the fence, the hole and the repair job the peoples had done.
“They will be back, Child… they will be back… and they will be none too happy,” he confided in the very young Oldest One. “and next time… they will not be as easily fooled.”
“I know, General. We were lucky.” Mamie agreed.
“Luck!” the General said, astonished, “Luck had nothing to do with it. It was engineering and planning, my dear.”
Mamie nodded and slapped on her serious face to keep from smiling to widely. The two walked back over to the site of the previous skirmish with the cat gang. The Angry Squirrel Army, who were not so angry after all, had already cleaned up most of the nuts and rocks on the ground.
“General”, Mamie asked, knowing exactly what she was just about to unleash upon herself, “How did you know that trick with the wooing would work?”
The General puffed up proudly and smiled broadly, “Well, Oldest One… you see… that maneuver was used in the Squirrel/Snake wars of the early 1980’s. Let me tell you about it… let’s take a stroll, shall we? I think you will enjoy this tale, my dear…”
The two began a long walk across the Yard that Goes on Forever, the General talking as he quickly walked… hands waiving and eyes darting as he told of his ancestors and their accomplishments. The small Chin strolled right beside him, nodding her approval, asking questions when she felt he needed to emphasize a point. This walk would last for a long while… but the bond they build that day would last a thousand Chin and Squirrel lifetimes. This was the beginning of the time of peace and harmony between the former Angry Squirrel Army and the Know-it-All Chin Pack of the Round Man. Well… almost the beginning of the time of peace. There is a bit more to our mostly true story that has still to be told.
In a show of superior numbers and strength, the cat gang formed a single line and stood side-by-side. One by one they sneered, showing their sharp teeth and steely glares. A mostly black cat with a white stripe down his nose tossed a leaf into the air and quickly cut it into strips with one effortless swing of his paw.
Mamie Chin stood her ground, looking down the line of cats as she tried to gauge their weakness. “I am not impressed,” she said flatly and with no emotion, “I am not frightened”, she fibbed, as her entire insides trembled with nerves, “and… I AM MOST CERTAINLY NOT ALONE!!”
With that, Mamie Chin quickly moved to a spot on her right that was clearly marked with leaves in the shape of an “X”. She closed her eyes for a moment, took a very deep breath and whirled around in one dynamic and long Chin spin that seemed to last forever. Coming out of the spin she was able to stop facing away from the cats and into the corner of the yard where two pieces of the Tall Wooden Fence joined together and formed a right angle. In a single motion she went from spin to still and suddenly she woo’ed… woo’ed loudly and long. The sound of the single small dog raced from her mouth, through the yard, bounced off one wooden wall and the angle of the fence forced a second bounce off the other angled wall. This turned the sound of a single dog into the echoed sound of many dogs wooing at one time. Mamie Chin had formed a Chin Army from where there was only one! The wall of woo’s bounced from fence to ground, around and off trees and bushes, through blades of dewy grass and, finally, rushed past the still wooing Oldest One and hit the gang of cats right in their collective smug faces.
The orange and white leader of the cats jumped up in the air, his fur standing high on his back and his tail five times it’s normal size, “WHAT??? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?” He shouted, not understanding how one small dog could make so much noise.
“Oh… you orange fool… I am not alone. I am NEVER alone in the Yard that Goes on Forever!!!” Mamie shouted in a very loud, deep and scary voice, “I have the spirits of all my Chincestors with me… they live on here, even AFTER the light behind their eyes has gone dim. You thought I was one,” Mamie laughed the most frightening laugh she could muster; “I am an ARMY OF INVISIBLE CHIN… and THEY WILL DEAL WITH YOU FROM BEYOND!” She woo’ed again, the noise firing off the wooden walls and back into the yard, filling the cats ears with noise from all directions.
“NOW, MY TROOPS… NOW!!!” shouted a voice from above. General Squeak summoned the might Squirrel Army, who had all snuck into various pre-planned positions above the cats during their display of superiority. It was the Army of the Yard that Goes on Forever that held the higher ground and superior number on this day, “NOW… ATTACK!!!” the General urged from his lofty post, high up in the trees.
Mamie continued to woo, her throat hurting and her lungs burning from the effort. Just as she thought she was spent, the troops of the Squirrel Army began their attack, reigning acorns and nuts and rocks and twigs down towards the ground below them. The cat gang was not only barraged with sound but now they were being pelted with debris and they did not know where it was coming from. It seemed like there were one hundred invisible dogs attacking them from all sides and all places.
“THE SPIRITS ARE ATTACKING US!!! SHE WAS RIGHT!!!” screamed a tabby cat as it turned quickly around and scrambled for the broken part of the Tall Wooden Fence.
“LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!!” followed a big, bruising all feline who was suddenly panicked by the commotion.
One by one, they all turned and ran, including their leader… who ran like the wind and through the hold in the fence, catching his tail on an exposed nail and leaving a bit of orange fur behind. As the last inches of his body disappeared into the Real World, he shouted back to Mamie Chin, “We will be back!!! This isn’t over, DOG!!!”
Exhausted and hoarse, Mamie Chin stopped her wooing. The continuous rainfall of yard pieces halted and it became very quiet… but only for a moment. The newfound silence was quickly replaced by shouts from the trees, shouts of “We did it”, “It’s amazing”, “Did you see them run”, “What a team” and “Hail Squeak… long live the General”. The noise was thunderous.
General Squeak scampered down out of the tree and ran over to Mamie Chin, a wide squirrel grin spreading from his puffy cheek and past his buck teeth to the other side of his round face.
“We did it, Oldest One… BY NUTS… WE DID IT!!!” The joyous General continued, “I thought we could do it but I never imagined it would be THIS great!” He giggled like a squirrel child who found its first nut on the ground. “My hats off to you, my dear… hats off, I tell you! What a woo job you did. And they angle we determined, it couldn’t have been better.” He was so happy he was almost lighter than air, “What a day, WHAT A DAY!!! You’re Aunt would be very proud of you… you were absolutely, positively, undeniably and overwhelmingly FIERCE!!”
Mamie Chin sat down, looked up at the squirrel, nodded her head… and cried. Tears rolled from her round eyes and down her cheeks as she shook like a leaf. The emotion of the events, her fear of the cats, and the drain of the wooing that long and hard… all of these things caused her to weep uncontrollably and this outpour of feelings shocked the General.
He paced back and forth in front of Mamie, reaching out to her and then pulling his paws back. He didn’t know how to consol a Chin… if a member of his Army was to act this way, he would simply make them run from tree to tree or gather nuts, maybe jump from a tree to a fence. This was not a member of his Army, though. This was a small, female, afraid and lonely Japanese Chin. He paced more, stopping to stare at her… his eyes darting quickly from place to place as not to draw attention to his concern.
“Now, now… Oldest One… it is over now… buck up there… stiff upper lip… you know… solid as a nut cover…” Squeak meant well but lacked the words to make it better. That is, until he thought back to a time when the real Oldest One had come across a very frightened Butch and Mamie Chin sitting on the big red deck all alone. He remembered her words as she calmed the weeping little girl that had recently turned into this grown up Chin before him. Squeak took a deep breath and looked at Mamie, speaking only these words to her, “Child” Squeak said softly, “Why are you crying?” He continued, “I do not know where you were born, little one. I do not know where your Auntie is, nor can I promise you that I will find your brother. All I can tell you, child, is as long as I am here… nothing will harm you.”
Mamie Chin stopped crying, she looked up at the Squirrel who was standing in front of her, she cocked her head to one side and she remembered the last time someone spoke those words to her. It was then that she truly realized that the Squirrel and the Chin were joined together. Joined in life and lot by this great Yard that Goes on Forever and the Old Brown house. She smiled a weak smile at the amazingly kind old Squirrel and nodded her head yes.
“You were there… weren’t you?” she asked him, quite plainly. “When Auntie Sophie first found us… you were there.” Squeak looked her in the eyes and she noticed softness in his eyes that she had never seen there before.
“Yes, child, I was there,” he confided in her, “I have always been close, watching… learning… knowing… being a part of your life. We are here, in this place, together. Our kind has always been here, together, for as long as either of our bloodlines can remember.”
“Then, you do not hate us?” Mamie asked, not quite understanding their relationship.
“Oh heavens no, Oldest One,” the General quickly answered. “You are simply know-it-all dogs… we don’t hate you, we just have learned to tolerate you here, in our home.”
“Our Home…” Mamie echoed with a smile, the tears almost gone. At that moment, the most amazing thing ever seen by nobody but a bunch of squirrels and a single, lonely chin suddenly happened. Mamie Chin reached out and pulled the General of the Squirrel Army close to her and hugged his round middle for a very long time.
Squeak was shocked for a moment, his body very stiff. He had never been this close to any Chin before… after all, they were necessary but annoying with their “chin this” and “chin that”. He had never considered them anything more or less than a requirement for normal life here in at the Old Brown House. As Mamie held on and squeezed him tightly, the General relaxed and, maybe… although Chin history is fuzzy on this point… maybe he hugged back a little.
After five Chin minutes (which, strangely enough was equal to five peoples minutes) Squeak cleared his throat and pulled away. “And THAT is quite enough of that… my dear,” he said, turning away slightly to mask his smile.
“Yes General,” Mamie said, still smiling.
“After all,” Squeak continued, “There is a yard to clean up. And we won’t do it alone, you know. This is as much YOUR mess as it is ours.”
Mamie nodded her head, a fake serious look on her face, “Oh YES General.”
They walked, side by side, over to the mostly closed section of the Tall Wooden Fence. Once there they could see where the gang of cats could still come in to harass them. Squeak looked over the damage to the fence, the hole and the repair job the peoples had done.
“They will be back, Child… they will be back… and they will be none too happy,” he confided in the very young Oldest One. “and next time… they will not be as easily fooled.”
“I know, General. We were lucky.” Mamie agreed.
“Luck!” the General said, astonished, “Luck had nothing to do with it. It was engineering and planning, my dear.”
Mamie nodded and slapped on her serious face to keep from smiling to widely. The two walked back over to the site of the previous skirmish with the cat gang. The Angry Squirrel Army, who were not so angry after all, had already cleaned up most of the nuts and rocks on the ground.
“General”, Mamie asked, knowing exactly what she was just about to unleash upon herself, “How did you know that trick with the wooing would work?”
The General puffed up proudly and smiled broadly, “Well, Oldest One… you see… that maneuver was used in the Squirrel/Snake wars of the early 1980’s. Let me tell you about it… let’s take a stroll, shall we? I think you will enjoy this tale, my dear…”
The two began a long walk across the Yard that Goes on Forever, the General talking as he quickly walked… hands waiving and eyes darting as he told of his ancestors and their accomplishments. The small Chin strolled right beside him, nodding her approval, asking questions when she felt he needed to emphasize a point. This walk would last for a long while… but the bond they build that day would last a thousand Chin and Squirrel lifetimes. This was the beginning of the time of peace and harmony between the former Angry Squirrel Army and the Know-it-All Chin Pack of the Round Man. Well… almost the beginning of the time of peace. There is a bit more to our mostly true story that has still to be told.