If dogs can understand ‘sit’ and walkies’ it’s not too much of an extension of that to believe that they could perhaps understand more complex human conversations. Add to that the rather more absurd concept that a dog could be so annoyed by those conversations as well as by what it sees going on around it, that it might need to talk to us humans, and you have the rationale for this play.
Andre, a chihuahua, has lived with Julie and Tom since they were married six years ago. Julie is kind and loving to him whereas Tom grudgingly accepts his presence, so naturally Andre is much more friendly with her. When he sees Tom bringing a string of work colleagues and lady friends back to the house whilst Julie is at work, Andre is incensed at the betrayal of his mistress and, when Tom turns up with Gloria, who is both his secretary and his latest squeeze, it all becomes too much, and he is compelled to tell Julie.
Tom’s boss has also taken an interest in his philandering and is about to blackmail Tom into keeping quiet about the embezzlement of company funds that they’re both involved in. The boss has a secretly filmed video of Tom and Gloria ‘working’ in the photocopying room late one night. Andre knows all about this too from speaking to the boss’s dog at a recent company barbecue.
Still being in love with Tom, but unsure of her next step, Julie allows Andre to tell Tom that she knows, which he achieves by talking to Gloria at her next visit, and explaining the situation with the video and the embezzlement. She blurts this out to Tom, who doesn’t believe her at first but somehow she’s somehow found out a lot about his problems, and he resolves to get hold of that video to protect his position.
Finding out from more walkies conversations, Andre tells Julie that Tom’s boss has done a runner with fifteen million leaving Tom hung out to dry as an accessory, at which point Julie decides to divorce him, which is excellent news for Andre, who, once he’s that he knows an excellent divorce lawyer, used recently by the owner of a lady canine friend of his, cuddles up on her lap with a contented smile. |