And he could see nothing of her but her black and furry skin--without head, without feet, without the big, bald paws he had loved to tickle, and the ears he had loved to nip.

There was nothing of her but the patch of black skin--and the SMELL.
But a great comfort warmed his frightened little soul.

He felt the protecting nearness of an unconquerable and abiding force and in the first of the warm sunshine his back fluffed up, and he thrust his brown nose between his paws and into his mother's fur.

Miki, as if vainly striving to solve the mystery of his new-found chum, was watching him closely from between his own fore-paws.

In his comical head--adorned with its one good ear and its one bad one, and furthermore beautified by the outstanding whiskers inherited from his Airedale ancestor--he was trying to come to some sort of an understanding.