Bad News for Henry cont'd

The walk to the pet shop wasn’t a long one, just across the precinct.

He’d visited before, buying small furry creatures for his daughter. The problem had always been the short lived nature of hamsters and gerbils. His daughter became emotionally attached to each successive rodent, naming them and attributing characteristics he never saw in the small scuttling creatures. Inevitably there was a huge outpouring of grief at each furry funeral.

Hence the tortoise – 80 years without mourning.

Replacement tortoise bought, he treated himself to a snack for lunch, biting down hard on his pasty.

Emergency dentistry really sucks.