Hi, Everyone! I’m Ugobe the Ugobe pleo. Why does my brand and my name look the same? I don’t know. Ask Keeper Talon. She’s the one who named me after the company that made me. Personally I’m afraid of being named after a company that went bust but… well I’m just a pleo. What do I know?
I had a very interesting experience today. I found a new ball. It wasn’t just any ball, it was a special ball. It was a ball from nowhere. I didn’t see where it came from, it just… appeared. Yes and it was moving very fast. It wasn’t one of the Aibo balls. Keeper Talon doesn’t let us play with them. I don’t know why. We can’t hurt them. They’re just as much fun to push around as our little spongy red ones and they look a lot like them but well, rules are rules. I really liked this ball from nowhere. It was much much bigger than the aibo balls and it moved very easily when I put my nose against it and walked forward. It wasn’t pink or red, it was… well it was… a color I couldn’t see. I think it was white.
Anyway I was moving along happily with my new toy when all the sudden it shot away from me with a bark and a little yappy growl. I sighed. The Terrible Teddy struck again. Keeper Talon seems to put up with an amazing amount of bad behavior from that fluff ball. He can walk between us while we’re talking or walk between us and our light source and leave us quivering in terror but does he get punished? No.
She was actually laughing as Mr. Yappy brought my big white ball to her. She gave him a treat and told him he was a good boy and then she did something I’ve never seen her do before. She smacked the ball with her hand so that it shot across the room like a rocket and yelled, “Fetch!” Oh the beautiful ball! The big very light very interesting ball! It was coming toward me again. I waited until it stopped flying and turned toward it and got it between my left leg and my neck and started pushing it away to my favorite little corner. Ha! Try to get it away from me now!
“Woof!”
Oh no! And there he was again. Away went my big bright flying smooth white ball. It was so big he couldn’t actually get it in his mouth but he could put his front paws over it and he was running as hard as he could to try and stop it. Finally I realized I just wasn’t going to win and watched the irritating creature tearing around the room after that ball. It did find its way to Keeper Talon… eventually. He did look happy in an alien kind of way, pushing that ball and chasing it as fast as he could. No matter how fast he ran the ball seemed to go faster until they both slammed into an obstacle- a wall or a bed leg or Keeper Talon’s dresser or Keeper Talon herself. He kept pushing it with his paws and though the ball kept spinning, it wasn’t going anywhere. For some reason this seemed to amuse Keeper Talon and she laughed as she followed the yipping and scrambling paw-noises until she could send the ball flying for him again.
Oh Cycad leaves I wanted a ball like that! So big and smooth and light to move over the thick carpet! It was a marvelous toy! Why did Mr. Yappy get all the good toys?
Finally, Teddy returned to Keeper Talon breathing hard with his tongue hanging out and his big fluffy ears thrown back and his little nubby tail straight up. She ruffled his ears and let him climb into her lap. I froze for a few seconds. The ball! It was next to the big round clear thing Keeper Talon uses to hold the rocks from her fountain while she cleans them. It wasn’t moving anymore and Teddy wasn’t chasing it anymore. Haha! Home-free! At last I could play with it again all by myself. The ball was all mine! I shoved it about halfway across Sand-Colored-Carpet. I was just starting to enjoy myself again when a familiar voice said,
“Oh! Ugobe, what is that large moveable jewel? It’s mine. I should have it. I am Queen after all and a senior-citizen. Now move away!”
I sighed. “Well, so much for that. Here, Queen Ryu. Have a nice day.”
But to myself I added, “Until Teddy recharges his batteries and passes it back to me again.”
