What Tofi Said

Tofi, Filip’s dog, says: I’m 14 years old, my name is Tofi. Filip brought me to the hospital. I’ll probably die in a year, daschunds don’t live past 15. I get by as best I can. I move slowly but I don’t complain. Just keep going. My legs hurt a bit and I don’t see so good. My hearing’s just fine. I pretend to be deaf – better not to listen to Filip’s commands, or his mom’s and sister’s. Filip came here with me, because he was helping Jo’ Rajkowska move some stuff from the old studio in Wolski Hospital to the new studio in Praga. First I visited the empty old radiology building. Cool – dark, damp, lots of smells, mold and mildew. I like that. Later I went to the trash, but I didn’t eat anything. It was cold, hospital cats were everywhere. Then I want to neurology, but got thrown out by an uptight old man in pyjamas. He was probably from the countryside, because he had such a weird accent. Another old man tried defending me. They argued. More great smells – medicines, rubber linoleum. Filip came to get me. Later Filip accidentally locked the car keys inside the car and had to go home to Służew to get the spare set of keys. So I went further down the walkways. I was already freezing, it was really cold. Jo and Wojtek went with me. We found the kitchen building. They took me to the first floor to Buffet Smaczek. Ms. Krystyna runs it. Ms. Krystyna let me explore it and smell the whole kitchen. It smelled of cleanliness, calm and sincerity. Just how I like it. Later people were eating something, wanted to give me food, but I wasn’t hungry. Music played on the radio, crows were crowing outside the window. Filip came at six, it was already dark. Great day, so many discoveries. What an adventure! Maybe the last one in my life.
Wojtek Kocołowski

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