Kickass and the beauty parlor
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the other dog at the keeper’s address—Boo, a loud-mouthed Schnauzer type, is currently at the dog beauty parlor and will emerge later in the day as something of a new dog, all trimmed and combed and clean and with a slight air of superiority. She will be indifferent to the keeper’s obvious need for a haircut, as well as the permanent cast-iron appearance of Kickass, and to the slightly altered opinion in which she is temporarily held by those around her simply because she got her hair done.
The keeper, forever helpless before the opportunity to make some obscure point, says the deep-down-dog is not changed by exterior manipulation, and when the keeper finally gets around to getting a haircut he may experience a brief breath of renewal but he will not be changed one iota from the opinionated, irascible “dog” that he is.
It is, however, important for everyone to visit the beauty parlors and the barbershops because even though it doesn’t really change us, it makes it a helluva lot easier to look at each other.