I woke to and because of a loud cheer coming from the kitchen. I rolled lazily out of bed and steadied myself holding onto the bottom of Matt’s bed. As I walked with my eyes closed I had a scratch and checked things were still in place. Sniffing as I made my way over to the bedroom door I could tell the whole family were in the kitchen. Also we were having a proper fry for breakfast. It’s the only bonus of Ryan getting his acceptance letter from the university today.

I’ll try to be happy about it, it’s a great opportunity and there is no-one more deserving of it than Matt. It’ll be hard, considering I have a limb that shows my true feelings. But as with any limb it can be controlled, to an extent. I have ramped up my practicing in anticipation for this moment. When I walk into the kitchen and try to convince my family that I am truly happy for Matt.

I’m not jealous at all, because he’s my brother and my best friend. But that is also the reason I am so upset, for as long as I can remember he has always been there for me. Now that he is going off to university I will only be able to see him and hang out with him at the weekends. Dumb university have a rule stopping pets from staying in the halls. Though Matt said he was going to sneak me in sometime during the second semester.

Even if they did its not like I could go and stay with him, I have another year at tech. Then I’m free or I can get a job. So I have a year alone, well not really. I’ll still have the rest of the family and my friends, but the main person/influence in my life is going.

I make my way to the bottom of the stairs and take a deep breath, preparing to wag my tail like mad. Unless everyone is round the table, then I can just sit with my back away from them. I walk into the kitchen and score they are all sitting around the table. Mom, dad and Matt all stopped talking instantly and look at me. This is awkward, the most awkward I have ever felt. To break the silence and the awkwardness I say morning to the room. Then break into a smile and ask what’s new? As if I didn’t know.

I make my way over to the table and take my seat, facing Matt. He was already talking about his acceptance letter. I nodded and smiled listening to the courses that he could pick from, the pros and cons of each. I was hungry before but now I’m getting really hungry. My nose starts to twitch from the smell coming from the plate in front of me. I was basking in the smell of the kitchen, but I tried to fight the urge to just start eating.

But I was fighting a losing battle; I started looking between Matt and the plate of food. I was staring at the food when he just stopped talking, I looked up and then to my mom and dad at either side of me. They were trying to keep from laughing. I must have been staring at the food for quite a lot longer than I thought.

I smiled and said to Matt to continue but he said “there’s no point, when there is food about your not interested in anything. You probably don’t even know what I was talking about.” Which was usually true, I would not pay attention to anything when I was eating or about to eat or there was food about. But I had made an attempt to listen this time. I replied with “you were talking about going to university.” “Nice save” said dad, giving me a nod. But I think we both knew no one was buying that. We laughed a bit and I started eating breakfast.

I dug into the food, though there was always too much. Mom insisted that I was still a growing boy and I need to eat up. Even though I am fully grown, I try to tell her but she just will not listen. I guess this is probably down to being less than 4 foot tall.