Pickles

A soft blue cushion. A name tag of the owner has been carefully sewn on it to distinguish it from other puppies', indicating the owner's exclusive ownership and its inviolability.

An Arcanist camera with a 35mm lens, capable of being loaded with either Arcane or ordinary film. Portable and capable of producing clear images, it can capture the most heartstopping moments.

Or it is able to make the small moments of a journey timeless, like catching a drop of the surging river.

A bright-colored ball, bone-shaped and carrot-shaped bite toys, and more gifts to be opened. Some come from the interviewee's puppy friends and neighbors, while the rest are tokens of greetings sent by the interviewee's admirer dogs who wish to meet him.

A tasseled shawl, soft and smooth in texture. Many puppies appear to enjoy sleeping on such woven textiles, but the interviewee evidently thought that its present form sufficed.

Before he put his front paws onto that grey-and-white window at registration, his friend in red and white shirt just carefully wiped this goggles for him. It was an ordinary day, until now.

A pair of sunglasses that get one in the holiday mood, a gift from warm-hearted puppy friends. The interviewee appeared visibly perplexed by it, for it cannot block out strong light, yet it is more than capable of filtering out all colors.

In London of the 1960s, the traditional close-knit family gradually fell behind the mainstream, while pets started to play a more important role in the bonding between family members. More and more people went into the bustling pet stores to find a fluffy, energetic new member for the family.

Compared to all other pets, there is no doubt that the welcoming puppies were the most popular one. They would walk in circle around you while wagging their tails, rub their teeth against your legs, bark to call for the frisbee or ball in your hand. Apparently no one could resist such temptation.

There are always loners, however, even among the social puppies in the most professional kennel. That black-and-white figure hid himself at the rear of the cage, his eyes piercing through the jagged crimson bars and the busy crowd to reach some corner outside the window which no one noticed.

"Hey buddy!" A pair of rough hands interrupted his tranquility. The owner of those hands rubbed his neck and chin intimately as if they were close friends in reunion. "Look at this little philosopher with deep eyes. You are the most special dog I've ever seen."

He also memorized the face of the man in red and white by heart.

The<space=0.15em> Winner's Speech

Ladies and gentlemen, cute fluffy friends,

To be honest, I've always known what Wendy would achieve in the games. We practiced the events until it was enough every week, like disc dog, sand surfing, dog agility, etc.

Now our effort has finally paid off, and I'm really happy about it.

The surprising part is, our little Pickles, the most libertarian one among us, was willing to take part in the games. He even registered for several events and achieved a fair success.

This is not an easy thing we are talking about, my friends. Last year it took me and Wendy great effort to finally make Pickles promise he would stay on the first row of the audience.

At last, I give great thanks to the sponsors of the games. I'll be glad to see Letter Recognition, Hide and Seek, and Puppy Messenger on the list of formal events for our fluffy ones in the future.

Thank you all for listening!

Pandora Wilson: Mr. Pickles, what do you think of Pascal's point, "All of man's misfortune comes from one thing, which is not knowing how to sit quietly in a room"?

Pickles: Woof ... woof.

Doggie: The puppy believes it is vitally inspiring.

Pandora Wilson: So that's why you made an attempt to leave, even though you stayed in the end.

Pickles: Woo ...

Pickles: *special thinking noise*

Doggie: The puppy accepted what things would be like.

Pandora Wilson: I wonder why. Were you influenced even more deeply by another great philosopher?

Pickles: ...

Pickles: Woof, woof.

Doggie: The puppy realized the uniqueness and importance of his puppy friends and Charl- ...

*something is hit to the ground*