“I am very disappointed in you,” said Devil, who somehow managed to make his way back onto the scene. Like most of the Dedes he had been packed away.
“But why?” asked Foxy Lady and pulled the picture of the dashing fox closer to her heart.
“I would have expected a girl of your intelligence to stand up and fight for her believes! Not run away and follow a mirage into some romantic dreamland.”
Of course Foxy Lady knows she is in trouble now. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that her attempt to assassinate Top Dog will have repercussions. It would be best if she could disappear. But how? How can she escape this little Dedeworld?
It happened that we received snail mail from @denise_m_oehl recently. Denise had sent us a pack of beautiful postcards of her work. Oh, postcards, greetings from the big wide world! Foxy Lady’s heart nearly stopped when she discovered this image of a gorgeous fox with golden fur. “I am going to find this man” she thought instantly “and I am going to marry him!” Problem solved!?
Oh dear, it is nearly a month since the dedes reported last. The reason? They were tidying up. If you have seen the studio before, you know this was a major.
Magician was happy with the result, but Esta Blished, who suffers from Alzheimers feels a bit disoriented in the empty space. Even worse. most of the Dedes got tidied up as well and are packed away for the time being. Only a few of them are still in the cupboard. Nobody really know what the artist was thinking, leaving Top Dog in the cupboard. After a weekend in the confined space, being forced to listen to the narcissistic Top Dog, Foxy Lady lost it and tried to push him off the shelf. Fortunately someone realised what she was up to and slammed the door shut just in time. Instead of falling off the shelf, Top Dog only bumped his head on the door and had to go to hospital with suspected concussion and a broken hand.
He came back this morning and the first thing he did was taking his bodyguard Norman T Newbie to the side and instructing him to go and to find the culprit and deal with it. I wonder what that means.
Top Dog figured out the Dedes won’t surrender unless he can unsettle the artist. He is adamant to find some dirt he can use. Luckily for him the artist is currently decluttering her house and had left a pile of ancient diaries on an otherwise empty shelf. Top Dog rubbed his hands and opened the first book. But luckily for the artist she had written her diaries in German and Top Dog doesn’t speak the language.
He took one of the books to Foreign Correspondent, who is looking after the Dede’s German blog. “Mhm,” the expert consultant said after he had evaluated a few pages. “Who do you think is interested in the drivel of a sad and lonely eighteen year old who is at odds with the world? In my opinion the books should be committed to the recycling bin!”
Top Dog didn’t like the answer, but Foreign Correspondent didn’t want to take another look. “Forget it! There is no artistic merit in these books” he said and continued with his own work.
We all know Top Dog is not one to give up easily. “Wrong consultant and wrong diary” he mumbled and grabbed another book. “Foreign Correspondent is simply too rational. I need someone who can emotionally connect with the story the artist recorded in her diaries.”
This time he went and asked Deutsch Fraulein for help. Surprisingly, when he mentioned the diaries, the old girl looked up from her mobile to which she usually is glued to and said: “leave the book with me. I will think about it.”
Of course Top Dog had to say something about the deal. He doesn’t particularly like the owl, as his charm doesn’t work on her. “Can we call you Indian Gift from now on?” he asked and added with a big smirk “I knew the artist can’t be trusted!”
“Oh, shut up you disingenuous old thing. It was all done amicably” replied Pinkpok obviously angry that he tried to spoil her joy.
“Oh, how I wish they had let you go!” said Top Dog and wandered off.
“Right, I have enough” said Mouse to Devil. “We have to do something new! What about taking ballet classes with the Grande Ballerina?”
“How is that suppose to help?” asked Devil.
“It will take our mind of things!” answered Mouse.
“Yeah, but ballet?” Devil wasn’t convinced “We could have a party, as Pinkpok is leaving us soon.”
“No, she doesn’t like a big farewell, she is very sad” said Mouse. “Don’t make it even harder for her.”
Indeed Pinkpok had packed her stuff and was ready to leave the Dedes. Not!
She was crying all night and here she is waiting, sad and exhausted, at the backdoor for her ride to the post office.
What she didn’t know then, was that her new owner moss.creek had already contacted the artist saying that she felt very uncomfortable separating Pinkpok from her Dede friends. A Dede needs like minded puppets around her. And moss.creek quite enjoys seeing the wise owl popping up in the story now and then.
Push Push the elephant suggested that Pinkpok could become a sponsored Dede just like her. Push Push and Harvey, the rabbit, are both owned by collectors but are still living in the Dede household, so that they can participate in the story. They have an obligation to write Christmas cards to their owners and can be recalled any time. Both moss.creek and Pinkpok were delighted with the solution. Phew!
Pinkpok, the wise owl, is finally preparing to leave the Dedehousehold. In this very short time she lived here, she has become Mouse’s confidant.
“Top Dog unsettles everybody. He has no empathy whatsoever. What can we do?” asked Mouse while she helped Pinkpok packing.
“That actually isn’t true! Top Dog can read the Dedes very well, so he has rational empathy. But he uses his knowledge to his advantage and doesn’t feel the pain he causes. That makes him a psychopath and there is not much you can do, but run!” lectured Pinkpok.
“It’s so sad that you have to leave soon. I could learn so much from you,” remarked Mouse dolefully.
Top Dog who has extremely good hearing and loves to eavesdrop on other Dedes conversations overheard everything.
“Ha, they say I feel no pain,” he said and grabbed himself a bottle of beer. “Of course I feel pain if I don’t get what I want. But I am not a whiner, I have better ways of dealing with the pain.”
Our friend wizened_gnome sent us a quote by Oscar Wilde yesterday. “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live….Selfishness always aims at creating around it an absolute uniformity of type. Unselfishness recognizes infinite variety of type as a delightful thing, accepts it, acquiesces in it, enjoys it. It is not selfish to think for oneself.”
Cat licked that one up like a bowl of milk. “Ha!” she said, “I love this quote. It proves, it’s not us cats who are the selfish ones. We don’t give a toss what others do. The baddies are always the dogs!”
Oh dear, it didn’t take long and we received a complaint. Cat has totally misinterpreted this quote, I was told, moreover, she is an arrogant piece of work. Mhm. I guess, as quotes are always cited out of context, they are open to misinterpretation too.
Mouse is wondering what happened to the happy-go-lucky Dedes?
“I don’t like where we are heading,” she mumbled and looked in the box of half-finished heads. “I have to tell the artist we need some amicable Dedes.”
Devil was so surprised about Top Dog’s offer, he couldn’t get over it. “I can tell you what the problem is, my dear” said Pinkpok. “Everyone is the centre of their own world and therefore, how they act is normal by their standards. Of course, as everyone is normal, all the others are expected to act in exactly the same way as oneself.”
This threw the cat among the pigeons. No-one could really make sense of what the owl meant. One reader even said “I conclude I’m a descendent of the Dedes – brain totally mushed and have resorted to the gin bottle 🙃”
Oh dear, we see the headlines: puppets drive readers to bottle.
A so wild discussion ensued.
“I don’t get what Pinkpok is trying to tell us,” said Calamity to Pavlova, the lab rat.
“It’s simple,” explained Pavlova, who always has to try new things in her job. “We believe what we do and think is normal. If we come across someone who has a different world view, we tend to believe we are right and they are wrong. It is easier than engaging with the otherness.”
“Do I have to understand that?” asked Calamity. Ah well, some Dedes never get it!
Yesterday was Truth Tuesday again and Mouse started packing her bags. Truth is, the Dedes are on the move. They will be moving from the big smoke to the countryside. This is a major undertaking. The Dedes came into existence because of changes to the current abode and now they are partially responsible for leaving it behind. It is simply because I want to have a bigger studio space. More space for more puppets and more puppet making workshops. So please, if their reporting gets a bit erratic over the next two months be lenient and don’t give up on them.
Today Top Dog snaked up to Devil. It looks like his popularity is waning and he tries to drum up more followers. He said: “I could do very well with a devil like you on my team!” But Devil doesn’t want to have a bar of it “No way” was the short and definitive reply.
“Not even if I gave you my soul?” Top Dog believes that this is an offer no real devil can refuse. “What soul? You don’t have a soul!”
Devil was deeply insulted by Top Dog’s offer. “What does he think? Does he really believe I am as mean-spirited as him?” he asked Pinkpok, the wise owl.
“Of course no-one thinks of themselves as being nasty, not even Top Dog, ” the owl replied “I know, you are well-meaning, but you often tick the Dedes off because you blatantly call a spade a spade. Sometimes it would help to present the spade nicely wrapped.”
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