Selena N. B. H. from Fayetteville, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be assisting the keeper in helping Phyllis celebrate her birthday today, having already—a day early, served her breakfast in bed and having made a grand speech about an expensive gift that he claims to be “in the mail.”
This morning, he will break out his button accordion and play “Happy Birthday” and would sing along except he has the peculiar musical handicap of breathing with his diatonic instrument which produces one note when you pull and different one when you push; and the keeper cannot sing while inhaling, some might say also while exhaling.
Fortunately, Phyllis has a generous appreciation of music and shuns neither the keeper’s accordion playing nor his singing. He considers himself a lucky man in many regards, not the least of which is to be with a lovely, interesting woman who is younger than he is, as is most everybody, of course.
Happy Birthday, dear Phyllis, is the keeper’s Kickass message, and may the sound of the accordion forever be something special between us.
