From Smokey the Pup and Viva the Diva

My name is Smokey and Viva teach me how to write!

I sw-ear loy alty, rev-er-ence, resp-ect and love to my fam-ily! I sw-ear I will pro tect them to my last br-eath! I will lo-ve them and respect them!

[Smokey spelt this for me word for word, but he doesn't know how to write the whole poem yet]

If you can happily protect your humans,

Keep the secret of all dogs,

If you can not talk all the time,

Even though that’s what you would always do.

If you never leave your human,

If you always help in need,

If you are funny in sad moments

And you do it well,

THEN YOU WILL KNOW

ALWAYS HOW TO ACT,

IN GOOD AND BAD,

A LOYAL DOG YOU’LL BE.

—-

I'm teaching him to read and write. He's doing great progress, great progress. Started with the oath poem, his name, and my name. Still working on it, but I am quite confident that he will be an expert soon. I am quite confident. He's a good dog. Small now, growing big. Very smart too.

We know the poem from Bea who knows it from Blacky. She wrote about it here: https://www.bside.blog/post/my-blacky . Bea is here to visit and I'm so proud of Smokey, so proud. Can't wait to spend some more time with her!