LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE & NAPPING CATS NAP -- WHAT IS THE OFFICE COMPANION MISSION!?

Looking back for a moment, I realized that I'm one of those lucky people who had a home office already in place before that lousy Pandemic hit and changed the way a whole bunch of people do things. 

Some people began working at home and then got an office dog or cat. I hope they still have them, but I fear a lot of people, once The Big Germ had mostly moved on, dropped the puzzled dogs and cats off at the nearest city shelter --or maybe the nearest park, grocery store alley or drove out into "the country," pulled over and shoved 'em out of the car and into a whole new puzzling hell.
 Thus we open this edition of our long-running feature "Let Sleeping dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. 
That clearly literary figure is my Senior Office Cat -- yes, it's the familiar face of my longtime pal, William Powell -- always helping the causes.
[LARRY ASIDE: If any of you guilt-stricken dog 'n' cat dumpers would like to confess, well, I'm not a priest but I have played one on stage -- The Rev. Dr. Harper in Arsenic & Old Lace at Theatre on The Hill in Cedar Hill. It's been a few years and I've aged into the role of "older clergyman." Yeah, animal dumpers, I'd be acting, but I'd still do my best to save your immortal soul -- just email the confession and I'll keep your identify a secret between me and THE Big Animal Creator who already knows your name, anyway. Pardon the sermon, but I love animals and I am concerned about people who harm them. Now, back to the topic: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap.]
At our house, my office dogs and cats have long served purposes of inspiration and explanation. 
They offer "calm" reactions to unfortunate typing errors.
When a paragraph lacks luster, Senior Office Cat William Powell demonstrates a smooth example of how to reshape the paragraph without adding an Oxford Comma to the
needless punctuational murkiness of life.

To demonstrate their usual positions of readiness, I caught photographs of a junior cat and the dogs. 
That cat, on his Office Scratching Chair, is precious, adorable, literate Stevie Ray Treeboy. He is consistently concerned that treats will not be distributed to cats and dogs with equal enthusiasm.
I took the chair photos on Friday morning, then realized that our two older girls, the big dog
Wendy and the smaller dog Porche, had fallen asleep while reading some of my short stories. Pretty sure that's what put them to sleep. Might have been the treats they got after they had breakfast -- when I'm dieting, dogs and cats don't. It's a wonder they have any extra poundage at all. 
While the girls were together, our boy dog, the Border Collie Mix Dudley the Angel had nodded off on the other side of my chair -- the side where the treats are kept. He's a clever lad. 
[LARRY NOTE: That's Wendy's sleeping mug on the right and, below left, that's Porche Noel acting as if she heard someone open a plastic bag of cookies. She's legendarily alert. Can even diagram senteces. Wendy is proud of being able to decline verbs.]
So, with such a clever bunch of office aides, it's hard to believe that I have yet to sell Senior Office Cat William Powell's most recent novel, "CAT-SLAPPING PUCKS -- WINNING THE STANLEY CUP." It's a sequel to his baseball novel, "RUN UP THE WALL AND CATCH THE BALL" -- It's about a college-educated cat who makes it to the Big Leagues when he adds bunting and power-hitting to his strong gift of playing the outfield. This star goes by the name "Homer."

[DEAR READERS: Thank you for reading this far into this edition. ReadlarrypowellDOTcom (the computer won't let me use the actual "." for that address), anyway, RLPDOTCOM urges/begs you to email photos of your slumbering critters and their stories to [email protected]. We'll post them in our weekend feature, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. We love to celebrate the adoration of animals. This edition is clear evidence of how the cats and dogs affect our existence. They inspire humans to make up tales of triumphant felines and canines for the sake of spending money.]