April 14, 1998
 

My dearest Winnie,

I am anxious to hear about your charm school and what you have been
doing at your wonderful farm in Virginia.  I would also love to hear
from all of the other animals who might read this letter and who travel
with their humans.  May they send their letters to you on the E-Mail
so I may read them?

I hear that you have lots and lots of BEES on your farm.  Are they nice
bees?  Do they have stories to tell you about their adventures?
I hear they are Italian.  I bet they do as they must see lots of things
from buzzing high in the air that you and I cannot see from the ground.

... and I also heard about Beau's arrival.  How special ... an Easter
lambie.  I've never seen a lambie up close, to speak to, that is.  I
cannot wait to meet him.  I did see the movie "Babe" and lambie's seem
very nice.  Do you like him?

I saw something funny in the television the other night.  There were
lots of doggies playing with plates (frisbees, they said).  They jumped,
whirled, flipped and dashed.  One doggie (who looked like me-beautiful)
held 13 of the plates in her mouth all at once.  This looked very
difficult but lots of fun.  Do you play frisbee?

Well, let me tell you about my trip last weekend to Nacogdoches which is
in a completely different direction than Kerrville.  Nacogdoches is a
very old town in the northeast part of Texas called the Piney Woods
Country.  Actually Nacogdoches and San Augustine fight over which is the
oldest settlement in Texas.  I don't know why anyone would want to fight
about this as I would think they would want to be the "newest, most
shiney town".  I personally think the oldest town in Texas is way out
west by El Paso, but no one asked me.

I love traveling by car as I have the whole back seat to sit and look
out the windows and dream about my adventures or I can lie down.  It's
really fun.

On the way there, we kept seeing signs for "Mayhaw" jelly.  I thought
that was a funny name; try saying it "May-haw".  My humans, Hilda and
Madison, stopped at one of the signs and I found out that Mayhaw is a
berry, only in bloom in the Piney Woods country and only in certain
times of the year.  The jelly they bought is bright pink.

Well, we got to the Fredonia Hotel, which a large place with lots of
bedrooms; in fact, I've never seen so many bedrooms - and an elevator.
There was also a large living room (which they called a lobby) and
lovely smelling dining room, but guess what?  They have DUCKS there,
sort of  like the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, I hear.  The ducks marched
out of the lobby around 4 in the afternoon to a park across the street
from the hotel, but I heard that they often became someone's dinner so
now they live in a beautiful pond in the Hotel lobby.   I watched them
eating, sleeping, fluffing their feathers and splashing around.  Pretty
nice life, me thinks.

Later I went to the park where the ducks used to live, and it is really
nice  - but there was a CAT perched by a fountain who was also watching
the birdies.  I barked and ran the CAT off so I could enjoy seeing the
birdies all by myself.  I noticed that the birdies are entirely
different from the birdies in Kerrville I wrote to you about.  They make
different chirping sounds and look bigger.

My humans tell me that all the nicest hotels now welcome pets.  (Well,
it's about time.)  The Fredonia Hotel had said "small pets welcome", and
I held in my tummy whenever I went through the lobby as, Winnie, I am
embarrassed to admit that I weigh 63 pounds.  But guess what, later that
night, I saw a very large Alaskan husky also staying there so I didn't
worry after that.  Handsome J. Patrick Parkerson wasn't there (darn),
but I did see lots of other doggies I got to visit with.

We took many walks around the nice neighborhood which had lovely
older homes and very tall azaleas which were in bloom.  I was very
careful not to disturb their yards.

That Saturday night, my humans got all dressed up and went to a party at
the hotel.  Auntie Nancy came especially for the party - all the way
from Houston.  One of my humans, Madison, was honored for all of his
hard work by the Sons of the Republic of Texas and came back with a
beautiful green ribbon with a medal on it and a green shoulder sash.  I
was careful not to drool on it as I certainly do admire it.  I hear that
he was knighted with the same ceremonial sword used by Gen. Sam Houston and that he's now to be called "Knight Wright".  I counted his ears, and
they are both there so the person with the sword, who did the knighting,
must have been very careful.

Someone told me that former President Bush was also chosen for this same
honor, however, the Secret Service looked dimly at the idea of the sword
and knighting too close to the former Prez's ears and neck.  Too bad.
I'm sure Millie would have enjoyed seeing him in HIS green ribbon and
sash.

The best part of the trip was that my humans brought me lots of food.  I
got some bacon and STEAK which was soft and easy to eat, so I didn't
have to bury it like I wanted to bury the roll in Kerrville.

Well, Winnie, it's time for the postman to come, and I have to stand and
wait by the window.  That's one of my favorite jobs I do each day to
help around the house.  Actually it's a postlady, and I love her.  Write
to me soon.  I hope that you are well and happy.

Love, your Texas cousin,

Suzy Matilda