We have a house in Burbank. It’s not large – only three-bedroom, and it looks even smaller compared to the territory of the entire property. On its territory, we have two large Christmas trees, eucalyptus tree, orange, apple, tangerine and persimmon trees, and several pomegranate bushes. No wonder that our property was frequently visited by squirrels, opossums, raccoons, skunks and, certainly, by local cats, that chose this territory as a place for the battle for dominance and a comfortable toilet.

That is all that was going on before Cella got into the picture. She was a mix of Alaskan malamute and Pit-bull. Basically, she looked like a short-haired Husky. She had a pretty but a little bit strict face, bright light eyes, and natural make up, which she often used to her advantage when she was up to some mischief and later begged for forgiveness.
I have to admit that with the arrival of Cella in the family, I started to better understand and respect women. For example, every morning she ran toward me and wanted me to pet her. Not to get something to eat, she knew she would bet food anyhow, but just for the heck of it. That moment of mutual tenderness didn’t last for a long, maybe for ten seconds and then she ran away attending to her business.

But I digressed. As I pointed it out earlier, with her arrival into the picture, all that animal voluntarism ended. Cells rarely barked and during her night battles, we only heard her growl and squeak of the chased away animals. Except for one time when she lost to a skunk, but that is an entirely different story.

Cella was a damn smart girl and knew precisely what she was expected to do. In fact, it was her own expectations that she tried to live up to. In our liberal household, no one held her to any kind of standard.

So, at night when we were returning to the property and opened the gates, in a beam of light we saw her contour, running away to the back of the house. Then when we were getting out of the car, she was running toward us, pretending that she was just there, standing on guard of the property in our absence.

When she came to me at that moment, I was grabbing her by the color, and as we were rubbing our noses together and told her “Cella, I swear, you are such a fraud, such a fraud!” and I swear she understood what I meant, but pretended that she didn’t.