How to beat Eric

Give him a one-rabbit handicap.

Allow me to explain. Since this is the day the Macs come home, the original purpose of the blog, to let them know from afar how Little Eric is doing, is fulfilled. Fittingly, on this auspicious day, the most bizarre Eric-event yet happened.

I hopped on the bike to take the dogs to the meadow for their morning constitutional, but Eric didn't seem as fast as normal. I slowed down to allow him to catch up, and to my astonishment, saw what was undoubtedly the cause: he was carrying a rabbit. Since he had been out-racing me most days, I took this as a taunt - he thinks he can beat me carrying a rabbit! Well, let me tell you he's wrong! I whipped that little hare-carrying-Cairn's butt! I had time to get my camera and take this picture of him huffing and puffing to the finish line:









Thus ends the EricTheDogNotTheMan blog. Oh, the stories left untold: "Closet Dog", "How to tell Eric from Findlay", and "some EricJoke that I thought I'd remember overnight".

Getting Eric to Eat

You probably recall that Eric doesn't really like dog food. Cat food, cow poop, yes; dog food, not so much.

Yesterday, I dumped the crumbs that had accumulated at the bottom of our dog food container into the yard. Later, I found Eric grazing away; he liked the crumbs even though he didn't like the dog food from which they crumbled. This was the moment I discovered, just as Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, that Eric likes ground-up dog food.

So, I quickly developed a process for preparing dog food that Eric will actually eat: grind the kibble up with a mortar and pestle. It takes no more than half an hour to make breakfast for him, and it's terrific exercise.

To learn more about penicillin's discovery, click http://www.exn.ca/Stories/2004/04/19/51.asp?t=dp

Eric attends Findlay's birthday party

Findlay was 6 years old today!








That's 49 in people years ( http://www.antechdiagnostics.com/petOwners/wellnessExams/howOld.htm ).









Hot dogs were served to hot dogs.













Findlay's present was a Jolly Ball, but he doesn't look very jolly. Little Eric was threatening to take the ball from him.

Worth a broken tulip

/`] Whimsicle

Eric was feeling capricious, so he ate a whimsical.

Questionable Decisions

I feared the blog was dead, but due to some questionable decisions (hence the title), we have a last-minute post for March.

With premature Daylight Savings and the occasional equinox, it is getting dark late enough that I decided to let Eric out after dinner. As you know, he has a fancy for nocturnal wanderings, so we hadn't been letting him out when the sun was anywhere near the yardarm. But it was such a nice day, and he really wanted out...

After it got seriously dark and there was still no sign of him, I decided to use the Ultimate Weapon to flush him out: the bike. He loves to run with me when I ride the bike, and since I hadn't ridden outside for months, I was sure he'd come running as soon as he heard its brakes squeal. Not so much. I rode back and forth in the pasture, hoping to get his attention without riding down to the dark and scary woods. No luck. I braved the meadow, and he finally turned up. But as I should have predicted, he thought we were on our normal bike ride, so he ran right into the woods. I rode very slowly through the woods, almost falling over roots, carrying my bike over the creek, and again losing sight of Eric.

I made it through the woods and decided to just ride back up the hill and hope that Eric was already at the top. Halfway up the hill, he appeared out of nowhere. I was afraid he wouldn't follow me on the bike, so I hopped off and got him on the leash with the promise of a belly-rub. When we were in the UK, I saw people riding bikes with their dogs running beside them on a leash, and I decided that now would be a good time to try that experiment: in the dark, starting up a hill, with a dog who is, shall we say, a bit exuberant on the leash. I got the bike started with Eric on the left. This lasted two seconds, then he crossed over to the right. Just before Eric and his leash got tangled in the spokes I abandoned the experiment and walked Eric up the hill with one hand, and the bike with the other hand. So, there is a happy ending.

Stayin' Alive

How the mighty have fallen - one post in January, and none in February. Until now! Alas, I have no stories worth telling, just photos!

You can play "Where's Eric?" with the left-hand picture. Trust me, he's there.

/`] Celebrity Marriages

Eric's career as a standup comic isn't going so well, so he's started arranging marriages among B-list celebrities. So far, he's arranged a marriage between PBS host Gwen Eiffel and the late Senator from Texas, John Tower, after which Gwen was known as Gwen Eiffel-Tower.

He has also arranged for actress Halle Berry to wed the late Richard Burton, and be named Halle Burton. And Philadelphia restauranteur Susanna Foo married Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, thus becoming Susanna Alito-Foo.

One of his clients, whom we'll call John Doe, requested anonymity because he became Mormon and married both two-time Olympic skater Tai Babalonia and golfer Michelle Kwan. Ms. Babalonia's name thereby changed to Tai Kwan-Doe.