‘Yes and no,’ said Lennie.

Creamy looked puzzled, but before he could say anything, Lennie went on. ‘Let me explain: I've thought of something which is work, but not as you think of work; I mean you can do it – in fact you do it nearly every day - without even noticing it.

Creamy looked even more puzzled. ‘And what would that be?’ he asked.

‘Well, you know when we were talking about complaining? And you said you were very good at it,’ said Lennie trying to be tactful.

Yes, I remember; but I'm good at lots of things,’ said Creamy; ‘complaining is only one of them.’

‘And modesty another,’ said Lennie, trying to hide a smile.

‘Is it? Never thought much about it,’ said Creamy. ‘But what are you trying to say, Lennie? I'm not sure I like all that talk of work.’

Lennie, managing to keep his face straight, said: ‘I was thinking that we could make use of your talent for complaining. I mean instead of just complaining for yourself, you could do it for others – AND get paid for it. In short, I thought that if we set ourselves up as solicitors, we could make money by complaining for others.

‘AND get paid for it I think you said?’

‘Loads and loads. Solicitors charge more than we ever could, no matter how upmarket we went with our shoe shine.’

A big smile spread over Creamy's face. He put out his paw and said: ‘you're on! Solicitors it is. Let's shake on it.’

‘Pleased to have you on board, Partner,’ laughed Lennie taking Creamy's paw. One thing though – what shall we call ourselves? It’s got to sound like a solicitors’ firm.

Creamy scratched his head for a little while, deep in thought. ‘Sorry, Lennie, can't think of anything. Can you?’

‘Mmm…’ said Lennie, ‘not really. Thing is, solicitors usually have several names. The building next door to the Moneybags had a big name plate, which read: Brown, Brown, Byng and Teddington-Brown, Solicitors.

‘Weird. Why so many Browns?’

‘No idea. I'd guess it's father and sons. Anyway, we could always use our own names.’

‘You mean like Creamy and Lennie, Solicitors?’

‘No, no; not serious enough. I mean proper names. I could use mine, which is Beagle. What about you?’

‘Good idea. I could use my proper name, too – Husky. Yes, that sounds good: Husky and Beagle, Solicitors.’

Lennie stared. ‘Er…’

‘Sorry, I meant Beagle and Husky, of course,’ said Creamy, afraid he might have upset Lennie by putting his own name first.

‘No, no! I'm very happy with your idea,’ said Lennie hastily, ‘Husky and Beagle sounds great! Honoured to have you as partner Mr. Husky.’

‘Same here, Mr Beagle.’ And they shook paws again.

‘Right,’ said Lennie. Next thing is to find an office. Somewhere nice.

‘Upmarket,’ said Creamy with a twinkle in his eye,’ and they set off office hunting.

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