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March 31, 2005

Betty The Beauty

From Michelle, A Propos of Absolutely Nothing

Last night as Oh Patient One and I were chatting, and as I was opening a bottle of wine, he noticed that I was wrestling with the bottle because the corkscrew now only has one arm.

It used to be a two-armed corkscrew. You know the kind I mean--you rotate the curly metal bit into the cork, then when it's totally in the cork you push downwards on the two arms of the two-armed corkscrew, and then Hey Presto, out comes the cork.

The reason it only has one arm is because...

...I accidentally broke off the other arm.

"Um, I accidentally broke it," I told him.

"Another one?" he asked, smiling at me, because apart from the fact that he is kind and would never try to suggest that I am just a bit clumsy (I am), this is the second corkscrew I have broken in the last three months.

"Yes," I nodded. "But it's okay. It kind of works with just one arm."

And as Oh Patient One looked at me, and as I looked at him, we suddenly fell around the kitchen laughing our heads off...

What on earth does this have to do with the price of bread, I hear you asking? Well, we were reminded of something...

Betty The Beauty

In my books 32AA and Call Waiting, Emma and Jack have a sweet little dog called Betty The Beauty. She's not beautiful in the conventional sense (although she is to Emma and Jack). She's a bit short with a body like a barrel, and her fur is a bit tufty and sticks out everywhere. Plus, she only has three legs...

But it's okay, because she can manage with only three legs.

Now, why the insane, rolling-on-kitchen-floor laughter?

See, the inspiriation for Betty came from my parents telling me about a friend of theirs who had a dog with three legs, on account of being bitten by another dog. This really touched me--I felt sorry for the poor thing, but so happy it had a good and loving home.

Anyway, sometime later I met the actual dog.

I was rather surprized (but in a good kind of way, obviously) because it had four legs. Not missing a leg at all.

When I asked my mother about it, she said, "Oh, no--I never said it only had three legs. It got bitten on the leg by another dog, and it nearly lost its leg. But the vet managed to save it."

Goodness knows how I managed to get the wrong end of the proverbial stick, but mebbe it was for the best!

Michelle, who really did see a three-legged dog with its human shortly after 32AA was published

Posted by Michelle at 12:06 PM | Comments (3)

Comments

Posted by: TJ Brown at April 1, 2005 12:23 AM

Posted by: Michelle C at April 1, 2005 6:45 AM

Posted by: Lani at April 1, 2005 7:51 AM