Read Fien's book

Fien is a long-haired dachshund who loves the beach, and the word for it. Her book has the chair by the window, the zip and the word, and the gull at Dishoek. An example. 14 photos, the answers to the questions, about ten minutes. Yours is made the same way.

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  Fien
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  Fien

  2019

  Fien

• Fien

  2019

  For Fien, who runs the household from a chair by the window.

  Fien1

  Breed

  Long-haired dachshund

  Born

  2019

  Lives with

  Joris, Marloes, Teun and Bo

  Loves

  the beach, and the word for it

  Fears

  waves bigger than she is

  Fien2

• Morning, six o'clock, Sundays included.

  Fien3

  The sigh and the duvet

  Six o'clock, Sundays included. Fien can't jump on the bed, so she stands next to it and sighs. Once. If nothing happens, she pulls at the duvet until it lands on the floor. Then she waits at the top of the stairs, because she only goes down if someone walks with her. One step at a time, front paws first, she checks over her shoulder that they are still behind her before she takes the last flight, straight to the chair by the window.

  Fien4

• The chair by the window

  Officially, Fien sleeps in the basket in the utility room. Really, she sleeps in the wooden chair by the window, chin on the armrest, so she can see the street. Bo gets the basket. It has been hers since the first week, and nobody has managed to change that since.

  Fien5

  

  Fien6

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  Fien7

  

  Fien8
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  This is the face when someone says the word 'beach'.

  Fien9

  The zip and the word

  It isn't the door and it isn't the lead. It's the zip of Joris's coat. Fien can be asleep upstairs, and she is at the door before it's done up. Most days that zip means work, on the bike, and she stands there anyway. On Saturdays it means the beach, and she knows the difference by the bag he picks up. The word does the same job. Spell it out and she still comes running.

  Fien10

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  Fien11

  

  Fien12
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  After the ball, into the sea. She never brakes for the wave.

  Fien13

  Bigger than she is

  Fien runs into the sea after the ball without a second thought. Then a wave comes, one bigger than she is, and she yelps and runs up the beach as fast as her legs will take her. Twenty seconds later she is back in, chasing the same ball into the same water, as if the wave had never happened at all.

  Fien14

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  Fien15

  

  Fien16
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  Fien17

  The gull at Dishoek

  On the beach at Dishoek, Fien chased a gull with the ball still in her mouth, right up until the gull turned round. She braked so hard she rolled straight over her own ears. Then she picked the ball back up and walked to the water as if that had been the plan all along.

  Fien18

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  Fien19

  

  Fien20

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  Fien21

  Who loves her, and how

  Teun combs Fien's ears with his own comb. Grandpa Wim comes on Fridays with, as he puts it, nothing on him, and a bag of liver sausage in his inside pocket. And Bo, her brother, sleeps next to her and takes her spot on the cushion the moment she gets up in the night. Each of them shows it differently, and Fien seems to know exactly which is which.

  Fien22
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  Fien23

  She only goes down if someone walks with her.

  Fien24

• The ear still turns inside out after a run. Someone puts it right, and she shakes it round again. Six o'clock still comes, Sundays included, and she still waits at the top of the stairs for company down.

  Fien25
  

  Fien, who checks you're still behind her.

  Fien26

• This book was made for Fien, from the words and photos of the people who love Fien.

  bookofmypet.com