you beat me to it peg, never have got one of those milestones

Perhaps disolve and coagulate should have posted it to an ecology thread?

I should've known! Bugs didn't mean viruses, it meant dungbeetles!

I like the sentiment. I coulnd't help notice the irony - we'll be celebrating two birthdays on 9/11, one is the grandpa and the one his grandson. He had a couple of rough birthdays until that grandson was born.


Oh and congrats to

Was this taken in Tiajuana?

You were showing down at the bottom the whole time (must have been off doing something else). Kept waiting for you to swoop in, but finally gave up!




Si!

Okay, SFC White, while we have your attention, I want details. What's your story? We all have stories...

Serves you right! I have decided Tuffy wasn't trying to have sex.. he was showing dominance. He loved her visiting but wanted her to know it was HIS territory ! I'm sure he intends to live a celibate life......

Thanks Fly !..

mtnmagic has your mail come to day ??????

I dunno, but methinks he mighta done it again! Who'da thunk it?

Noticed Peg went ahead and saved Liza Jane. 'Twas nicely done, no snide remarks comin', eh?


Just in case y'all forgot what it looks like:
Or
tho methinks not, eh?

Did I see that at 9:53pm Atlantic Time on a Friday night nobody was in chat?For what?

Yes vet, and thank you very much...Isn't she loverly?

I'll PM you my email....can go through here, I think..unless I cancelled it in a burst of frustration over the dark side...better go look...


Yo ho folks got a very early out today. I'm all set to go to teenmagic's first football homegame. The booster club heard that I was available. I have phone messages...Can I do Snack Shack for the JV game tomorrow before our game? Can I come help tomorrow morning to cook and serve breakfast for our boys?
Can I come later tonight and help cook and serve the dinner we provide on the night before home games? The answer is yes, yes, yes...as long as I can stop everything and watch my son play tomorrow when their game begins...

It is the last...well kick myself silly...I see Eliza Jane down there!

Good luck tonight to Jr. Magic!!!! Hope this week goes better than last.

Come on home and join in chat!

edit: Wonder why my avatar moves in points elsewhere, but not here?

Another mystery to be "Solved", eh? Methinks it mighta got "Coagulated"! How could it not?

Huh...because teenmagic is starting this one??? Sorry, I'm a Mom. The kid is 5'8, 150lbs..and gonna start at strong side, outside linebacker. Coach says he is going with his heart, brains and strategy...Gee, even in the movie "Rudy" they waited until the last game. God I hope he doesn't secretly read this forum....

On Edit: saved the wrong quote. Am replying to "How Could it Not..." by Doc

double

Sorry! Methinks I done it again! You ain't gonna be mad at me now, are you?

Go get 'em Teen Magic!

BTW, I was waitin' for y'all in chat, but no one ever showed up, eh?

You didn't do anything Doc. Just found out yesterday that teenmagic was starting. Haven't said a word about it until now. Well, except for in my prayers...please do not let him be squished like a bug!

Actually, after the initial shock of last weeks loss, we got to talk about the fun of the game being the most important thing. His attitude and dedication at practice came with the reward of starting this week. Double edged sword, don'tcha know?

Gotta go up to the high school. Will be back later!

my other half is in chat now and no one their

I am really sorry I have been letting down you guys the past few days and tonight in particular. I wasn't here to wish Teen Magic luck, I didn't stumble on another milestone (but I did drop in and thank Fly for that ! I don't remember but think I thanked Peg as well. If I didn't I meant to)... before I passed out)

Yep, I fell sound asleep. My little hellion did me in. We took him with us today when I delivered my babies and then I had to do grocery shopping and all told he sat in the car with Les for over two hours as good as gold. He didn't have any accidents and sat and played with his toys. I was also buying his leash today so Les couldn't take him out of the car for a toilet break. I didn't have the heart to lock him up in his cage in the middle of the day so soon after he joined the family. Probably would have been better for him in retrospect but I hadn't expected it would take so long and he still won't let us out of his sight. I think he is still afraid he's only visiting.

When we got home he actually made the edge of the puppy pad before he let loose. He was too close to the edge but he tried. And we had a minor celebration with me heaping praise on him. And then he went wild. I had bought him two new toys and he loved them but he also wanted a playmate. I figured he'd earned that So as soon as supper was over he had a partner, sore back and pain radiating down one leg and all. I thought he'd be exhausted after an hour or so. He wasn't but I was.

In fact I only woke up a few minutes ago and decided to come in and say goodnight at least. Hope TM 's team won and hope he finished the game unscathed. I also hope his Mom survived!

See you tomorrow!

Nite all

Third try on this GDMFDPOSmachine! Yep! Playmate is the big thing, that and mother and pack, and you can be them all! Even somethin he doesn't like, if it means apporoval and love he'll jearn to love it! Had a dog I loved to hug, she hated it, by the time she was 3 it was a reward! Gotta ive pups love but make things absolutely consistant, if they get away with it once they're always (at best) confused.

Wish I was set up to have a puppy (as a gimp) and it would be peaceful with the wild birds and animals I consider my friends! Don't see it happening so I choose, hope it works out perfectly for you!

Good morning everyone!
(or what ever 'tis where ever you is, eh?)

Geez, no birds singin', pets rompin' 'round, kids makin' a fuss or anything this mornin', eh? Methinks that might be 'cause the sun ain't shinin' yet.Did anyone ever show up?

Here's a little somethin' my sister in Morro Bay sent me, eh? Methinks y'all may get a chuckle outa it.

By Michael Gartner

*Michael Gartner has been editor of newspapers large and small and president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.*

*********

My father never drove a car. Well, that's not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.

"In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it."

At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in: "Oh, bull----!" she said, "He hit a horse."

"Well," my father said, "there was that, too."

So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The neighbors all had cars -- the Kollingses next door had a green 1941 Dodge, the VanLaninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford -- but we had none.

My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines, would take the streetcar to work and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the streetcar home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three blocks to the streetcar stop, meet him and walk home together.

My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and sometimes, at dinner, we'd ask how come all the neighbors had cars but we had none. "No one in the family drives," my mother would explain, and that was that. But, sometimes, my father would say, "But as soon as one of you boys turns 16, we'll get one."

It was as if he wasn't sure which one of us would turn 16 first.

But, sure enough, my brother turned 16 before I did, so in1951 my parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts department at a Chevy dealership downtown. It was a four door, white
model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded with everything, and, since my parents didn't drive, it more or less became my brother's car.

Having a car but not being able to drive didn't bother my father, but it didn't make sense to my mother.

So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach her to drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I learned to drive the following year and where, a generation later, I took my two sons to practice driving. The cemetery probably was my father's idea. "Who can your mother hurt in the cemetery?" I remember him saying once.

For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the Driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of direction, but he loaded up on maps -- though they seldom left the city limits -- and appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work.

Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement that didn't seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of marriage. (Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)

He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20 years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's Church. She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would wait in the back until he saw which of the parish's two priests was on duty that morning

If it was the pastor, my father then would go out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the service and walking her home. If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a 1-mile walk and then head back to the church. He called the priests "Father Fast" and "Father Slow."

After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother whenever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If she were going to the beauty parlor, he'd sit in the car and read, or go take a stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine running so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio. (In the evening, then, when I'd stop by, he'd explain: "The Cubs lost again. The Millionaire on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored.") If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry the bags out -- and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream.

As I said, he was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she was 88 and still driving, he said to me, "Do you want to know the secret of a long life?"

"I guess so," I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.

"No left turns," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"No left turns," he repeated. "Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic. As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn."

"What?" I said again.

"No left turns," he said. "Think about it. Three rights are the same as a left, and that's a lot safer. So we always make three rights."

"You're kidding!" I said, and I turned to my mother for support

"No," she said, "your father is right. We make three rights. It works." But then she added: "Except when your father loses count." I was driving at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started laughing.

"Loses count?" I asked.

"Yes," my father admitted, "that sometimes happens. But it's not a problem. You just make seven rights, and you're okay again."

I couldn't resist. "Do you ever go for 11?" I asked.

"No," he said. " If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can't be put off another day or another week"

My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999, when she was 90. She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year, at 102.

They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom -- the house had never had one. My Father would have died then and there if he knew the shower cost nearly three times what he paid for the house.)

He continued to walk daily. He had me get him a treadmill when he was 101 because he was afraid he'd fall on the icy sidewalks but wanted to keep exercising -- and he was of sound mind and sound body until the moment he died.

One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I had to give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all three of us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual wide- ranging
conversation about politics and newspapers and things in the news.

A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, "You know, Mike, the first hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred."

At one point in our drive that Saturday, he said, "You know, I'm probably not going to live much longer."

"You're probably right," I said.

"Why would you say that?" he countered, somewhat irritated.

"Because you're 102 years old," I said.

"Yes," he said, "you're right." He stayed in bed all the next day. That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him through the night. He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us look gloomy, he said: "I would like to make an announcement. No one in this room is dead yet."

An hour or so later, he spoke his last words: "I want you to know," he said, clearly and lucidly, "that I am in no pain. I am very comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone on this earth could ever have."
A short time later, he died.

I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I've wondered now and then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so long. I can't figure out if it was because he walked through life.

Or because he quit taking left turns.


Just 'cause you ain't blunderin' into every milestone don't mean anyone here thinks you're lettin' us down, eh? Methinks there might just be a life outside of here to be lived and shared with them you love. 'Sides, just 'cause you got a new fuzzy toy don't mean you won't eventually settle down a bit more and get through which ever childhood you're presently experiencing. Havin' a bit of consternation with the 'puter are we?

Well, here's hopin' the weather's great where ever y'all are at! Enjoy the day, be safe, stay well and remember to play nice!

yes their were tomh,bill,winston,heart,beamer,redbird,FDemocrat,jeffm,skilet,cutecat
now who did i leave out???
what no fishing this morning

Good Morning all..

Although its feeling like afternoon as I've been busy for hours. Fly ... childhood ?? If anything I feel as if I am aging even more and at a faster clip!

I am enjoying him more even than I expected but feeling guilty because my Petey and family are being a bit neglected and I'm missing my babies. I know I spoil my birds. They get hard boiled egg yolk mixed with their seed every morning and romaine lettuce hearts and broccoli sprigs every day and I know they won't get that in their new home. They also get their bathtubs every morning and a clean cage every day. It is going to be a change from what they have always known. But I did have to make a choice, I may be dumb but I'm not completely dense.

And on top of that .. Tuffy scares the begeezus outta me at times. He is into everything of course and lord knows I watch as closely as I can but on occasion he seems to be choking or have hiccups and I inwardly panic thinking something is wrong. So far it passes quickly and he returns to frolicking and seems fine but it is scaring me.

The training is exasperating but I know its early days and the worst case scenario there is I shampoo this carpet once its accomplished. Its funny, he doesn't mess in his cage and he didn't yesterday when we were out but the rest of the time he is a typical puppy going whenever and where ever he feels like. There is the odd success .. but it is rare.

Now that he has conquered the stairs from this room to the kitchen its making my ability to get much done even more difficult because the very first place he heads once he has successfully ascended the stairs is the living room and I do not want him in there until he is housebroken. The way the doorways are to the living/dining rooms gates won't work so its a problem.

if Les were more able to help it might be easier but at the moment the extent of help is he watches Tuffy once he's up so I can go do the pond work and feed the fish and sneak in what yard work I can in a few minutes. Nothing is getting done around here that isn't mandatory!

right now he is on my lap trying to type along with me but I wanted to come in and wish everyone a good day ! Better go and at least talk to Petey and crew for a few minutes !

CO,

Don't worry about that hack/gag thing with the pup, fairly common, puppies have to learn how to control EVERYTHING, even their internal workings. Had one that did that a lot and she lived to be 16.

Good morning, all!

A pilot friend sent these to me and I immediately thought of sharing them with BigTom, and of course all hands as well... joe e

For all the animal owners, lovers, gazers, on the Forum: I would not do well in Saudi.

----------------------------------------------------
Saudi religious police outlaw cat, dog sales
By Donna Abu-Nasr
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sep 09 2006 12:00AM
----------------------------------------------------

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia's religious police, normally tasked with chiding women to cover themselves and ensuring men attend mosque prayers, are turning to a new target: cats and dogs.
The police have issued a decree banning the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western influence.
The prohibition on dogs may be less of a surprise because conservative Muslims despise dogs as unclean. But the cat ban befuddled many, since Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats.
The religious police, known as the Muttawa, enforce Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic code. Its members prowl streets and malls, ensuring unmarried men and women do not mix, confronting women they feel are not properly covered or urging men to go to prayers.
But the government also gives the Muttawa wide leeway to enforce any rules they deem necessary to uphold the social ! order.
The decree -- which applies to the Red Sea port city of Jidda and the holy city of Mecca -- bans the sale of cats and dogs because "some youths have been buying them and parading them in public," according to a memo from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jidda's city government.
The memo urges city authorities to help enforce the ban.
Pet owning is not common in the Arab world, though dogs are kept for hunting and guarding. In large cities around the Middle East, stray dogs often wander the streets.
However, in the past few decades, owning dogs or cats has become a fashion statement among Saudis. Showing off a Doberman, pit bull or fancy breed of feline has became a status symbol.
Conservatives decry the trend as a Western influence, just like the fast food, shorts, jeans and pop music that have become more common in the kin! gdom, which is ruled by the puritanical Wahhabi interpretation! of Isla m.
"One bad habit spreading among our youths is the acquisition of dogs and showing them off in the streets and malls," wrote Aleetha al-Jihani in a letter to Al-Madina newspaper. "This is blind emulation of the infidels."
The decree has not been enforced yet, according to several pet shop owners and veterinary clinics in Jidda. It applies only to selling dogs and cats, and there was no sign the Muttawa would confiscate pets.
The ban distressed cat and dog lovers.
"I was shocked when I heard about it," said Fahd al-Mutairi, who owns 35 cats. "What was even more shocking was to hear that the ban came from an authority that has nothing to do with such an issue.
"I would understand if it came from the Health Ministry or anybody charged with ensuring pets coming from outside do not carry diseases," added the 23-year-old flower shop owne! r.
No other Arab country restricts pet ownership. But in Iran, ruled by Shi'ite clerics, religious police sometimes harass people seen outside with their dogs. Last year, Iranian police told people not to bring their dogs out in public, but the order was never backed up by law and dog owners widely ignored it.
The inclusion of cats in the Saudi ban puzzled many because there's no scorn for them, as there is for dogs in Islamic tradition.
One of the prophet's closest companions was given the name Abu Huraira, Arabic for "the father of the kitten," because he always carried a kitten and took care of it.
A number of hadiths -- traditional stories of the prophet -- show Muhammad encouraging people to treat cats well.
Once, he let a cat drink from the water he was going to use for his ablutions before prayers. Another time, Muhammad sai! d a woman who kept a cat locked up without feeding it would go! to hell .
Dogs -- considered dirty and dangerous -- are less lucky. According to one hadith, Muhammad said a Muslim loses credit for one good deed each day he keeps a dog and even said dogs should be killed unless used for hunting or protection.
Still, in another instance, he said that a prostitute who carried water in her slipper to a thirsty dog would go to heaven, her sins forgiven because of her kindness.
"All these things considered, it is obviously not against our religion or our tradition to have dogs and cats as pets," columnist Abeer Mishkhas wrote in the Arab News.
"I sincerely hope [authorities] will leave the cats and dogs alone and concentrate on what should be their real business," she added.

SPIRIT OF AMERICA...
This will take a bit of time to download, but I know you will find it worth your time. joe e

Snuff,
You wouldn't fare too well under any circumstances.

Here's a cute little guy - never heard of a bandicoot before.



In case you can't read it, it says One Man Bandicoot.

Did you google "cute animal sex?"

add: I need to go away now.

Go to the following link to see literally a $100,000 toilet:

http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/09/....php&frame=true

Terrorism has scared the "expletive deleted" out of people...literally. While that actually makes no sense, it sort of explains the $100,000 toilet. Evidently a necessary invention in a world filled with terror, the structure is not only bulletproof, but can withstand a 15 ton blast as well. While we don't know of any units in America (yet), Beijing has 8 floating around in their Zhongguancun Plaza. Just wait until the sirens go off and we are all forced to hide in porta-potties.

here the picture

Does the $100,000 toilet come with silk TP?

nope ... mink lined satin... on a solid gold holder

It's called going in style.

Marketed under the name MinkStink?

Sorry to interrupt the toilet talk here. I just gotta share...

What a wonderful fall day for football. Did they win? No they did not! But they improved a ton from last week. :touchdown:

Teenmagic played the whole game...every single defensive play. The kids are starting to pull together.

For me - I have been doing football with both my boy's for over twenty years. Older Magic was there...I made myself very, very sick the night before with worry. Both the boys are used to me pacing and not sleeping. Teenmagic said as he turned my light off at 6:30 this AM, "Time to sleep for an hour or two."

And so I did.

I was so proud of all the boys. I live in a resort town, but the kids that are involved in sports are the core of the community. I have known most of them since preschool.

One of my highlights today was a very little blonde haired boy... He was wearing a Pop Warner Youth Football Jersey. He tugged at my shirt and said...."Lady, I hear that your son is Number 55. I hear that they won two championships while they were in Pop Warner." Look at him now...or words to that effect.

I told him to wear the jersey well. He was right and magic would happen if they just believed.

Yes they lost, but my oh my...they played oh so very well.

I wish! Momma had things for me to do, places for me to go and people for me to see, eh? Besides, methinks it bein' Saturday and all them party boats'd be too crowded and there'd be so many yahoos with more boat than brains out there for me to be takin' my canoe out there amongst 'em.Probably a good thing you didn't go out and get a ferret, monkey, racoon, squirrel or skunk on your whim, eh? Speakin' from experience methinks there's few critters can get into everything like a ferret, monkey, racoon, squirrel or skunk. They do have their positives though, 'specially the fact, 'cept for the monkey, they're all easy to house break.Methinks I couldn't find a spot for it in the canoe, so 'twouldn't do me any good 'less I build a new and much bigger boat.


Havin' seen what I've seen on CGCS over the past couple days methinks I gotta wonder if Thursday's full moon had anything to do with it. Anybody got any hints?

I was looking for a recipe for possum and found one that called for either possum and bandicoot.



Ah, sweet.

Thanks Red Bird! You are right. It was ever so sweet!

Congratulate Teen Magic for me Skillet! tell him he even has a fan in Canada ! :touchdown:

Again, just popping by to say goodnight.

And Tomhye.. you got it.. a great marketing idea ! What's the news on your helper ?

I'm way behind on what has been going on. I feel like I'm living in another world these days, enjoying it though despite the demotion. From gardener, pool lady, cook, homemaker and nurse to pooper scooper in a blink of the eye ! But when this little furball snuggles into my neck and kisses me its a job I don't mind a bit !

Fly .. you can housebreak a raccoon ??? And a monkey ?? I'll pay your plane fare if you come housebreak this little sweetie !

ok I'm gonna call it a night .. 6 AM comes early !

Sleep well everyone

Enjoy every moment of this which I know you will. And it how the game was played. If he goes on to play in college, not likely to get the amount playing time that you enjoyed tonight. Actually, I think highschool games are more memorable for some reason which I can't explain. Certainly more poignant for a mom. Maybe its the innocence of youth and the fact that they are still home. How proud you must be. And that is great.

Night all

Sweet Sweet Dreams....

Okay, I've had it, so I'm next to check out for the night. Besides, I want to be rested tomorrow evening so I can watch part one of that controversial 9-11 docu-drama. I wasn't going to but now I think I should so I will know what "those guys" are up to with this dirty tricks campaign they're starting to spin.

KT

Good morning everyone!
(or what ever 'tis where ever you is, eh?)

Well, 'tis a beautiful day in the Bahamas, and pretty good here too, eh? Nice enough that methinks someone has decided I'll be diggin', tillin' and mulchin' a new piece of the back yard she wants to add to her garden next year. Already done a bit of it this mornin' while 'tis still nice and cool.Raccoons yes, they're actually not difficult if you get them young, eh? Monkeys methinks are a different story, which's why I noted that exception. Just do what a few others been recommendin' here and be very patient, success will come methinks. I'm bettin' that all this controversy'll jack the ratings far higher than they'd have originally been, eh? Methinks ABC might even've helped stir it a bit to get the controversy goin', and'll now reap the benefits.

Hey Peg - did the mystery of your avatar ever get "Solved"? Had it been "Coagulated"?

Well, here's hopin' the weather's great where ever y'all are at! Enjoy the day, be safe, stay well and remember to play nice!

Same weather here again .. and I am itching to get out digging and freshening up all the flower beds which badly need it (and so do I) but its not likely to happen. Les isn't quick enough to be much help with the main chore around here these days and I don't want to lose the ground which is showing signs of developing this morning!

Tuffy has actually used the paper 5 times already this morning. Now that may be because he loves the treat he gets when he does (and I don't know if that's a good idea or not , but it does seem to be working!) Only once was he a bit off the mark and hit half carpet and half puppy pad. He still got his treat though because I don't think its fair to penalize for bad aim.

He still has not messed in his cage even once .. and this morning I was over an hour later getting to him as I slept in till almost 7.30

You guys must be sick of the Tuffy saga by now but as its what is occupying my mind at the moment it seems its all I have to talk about unless I dwell on my damnable hip and leg and I'm sick to death of regaling all of you with our health problems ! I don't do whining very well although you may think otherwise after all these months of my problems! It just happens you guys are the only ones I can unload on and that is my release valve. If it were not for all of you I might have disintegrated by now ! I keep wanting to say thank you but even that loses its purpose if said too often.

Fly, I realized after I had posted last night that you had not included the monkey in your TT accomplishments but was so tired I didn't correct the post. One thing is a definite these days .. Tuffy wears me out. He loves to play and doesn't want me out of his sight. Although there is a bit of a competition going on .. Les cuddles and spoils so he is the good guy .. I scold and confine him to his cage when I absolutely have to do other things so I'm trailing in the popularity polls. He goes absolutely wild when he spots Les in the morning and thank god he takes Les' mind off himself and he forgets to moan and groan because he's busy snuggling Tuffy. That may be the unexpected bonus as a result of my decision to bring this little hellion into our family. Whatever the reason .. I'll take it with gratitude and relief.

Better go .. I need to go tend my feathered wonders while Tuffy is napping.

Have a marvelous day everyone.

Nah! Methinks if that was the case you wouldn't see any energy bein' expended here to encourage it. Besides, 'twould seem the little guy's brought a bit of happiness into your lives. Methinks we're all happy for that too, eh?

Did you go out and get the matchin' watches yet?


Anybody hear from Pie lately? You don't suppose their route to the Land of Lincoln took 'em through the Atlantic Provinces, do you? While methinks Nova Scotia's lovely this time of year it just might be a tad outa their way.

NOT ALL HEROES ARE PEOPLE ~ ~ ~

James Crane worked on the 101st floor of Tower 1 of the World Trade
Center. He is blind so he has a golden retriever named Daisy. After the
plane hit 20 stories below, James knew that he was doomed, so he let Daisy
go, out of an act of love. She darted away into the darkened hallway.
Choking on the fumes of the jet fuel and the smoke James was just waiting
to die. About 30 minutes later, Daisy comes back along with James' boss,
who Daisy just happened to pick up on floor 112.

On her first run of the building, she leads James, James' boss, and
about 300 more people out of the doomed building. But she wasn't through
yet, she knew there were others who were trapped. So, highly against James'
wishes she ran back in the building.

On her second run, she saved 392 lives. Again she went back in.
During this run, the building collapses. James hears about this and falls
on his knees into tears. Against all known odds, Daisy makes it out alive,
but this time she is carried by a firefighter. "She led us right to the
people, before she got injured" the fireman explained.

Her final run saved another 273 lives. She suffered acute smoke
inhalation, severe burns on all four paws, and a broken leg, but she saved
967 lives. The next week, Mayor Guilaini rewards Daisy with the Canine medal of
Honor of New York. Daisy is the first civilian Canine to win such an
honor.

Everyone may already remember this but given my love for animals and opinion that they are often superior to a lot of people I think it bears repeating !