Looking at Dog, I rolled my eyes. "Shamelessly marketing? I simply put a few incidents down on paper, or the electronic equivalent of that."
"A few incidents. Yes. And then took to the internet to promote it. Putting my life on display." Dog refused to look at me. He puffed a little too vigorously on his cigar, and the smoke bloomed dark gray about his head in the approaching winter air.
I gestured with my cigar in my right hand. "Don't worry about it. Everyone knows it's a work of fiction. It's only based on you and your exploits." I put my cigar back in my mouth. The late afternoon air was definitely full of early winter, and the chill was compounded by Dog's attitude. He didn't immediately respond, so after a couple minutes, I broke the ice. "Would it make you feel better if the next story has you playing the part of some hero?"
"Yes, that would be nice. Something like the one story of you and your dog when you grew up, when he slayed a monster rat to save you. Yes, that would do nicely. " He nodded, looked at me, a smile breaking across his canine teeth which were stained a bit from the tobacco. Nasty habit. He added, "This way when you take me to the dog park, the other dogs might look at me and think something special, you know?"
Nodding, I agreed to his request. "Consider it done. All good?"
He shrugged, but the smile on his face showed it was all good, and the evening came in on a lighter, slightly warmer note.
Read about more exploits of Dog in Cigars with Dog - Conversations and Tall Tails on Amazon.com