Gourd Theft Photo

In honor of Carolyn and Alice's arrival, and in anticipation of Halloween, we carved a pumpkin and surrounded it with half a dozen little gourds.

"But there are only three gourds in the picture!" you say? We suspect Eric, whom we've caught scurrying off, gourd in mouth.


We tried unsuccessfully to reenact the gourd theft for a photo.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

Eric and Findlay like green beans. They like them a lot.

Eric also likes Eukanuba Maximum-Calorie Nutritional Stress/Weight Gain Formula cat food.

Findlay does not.

This is the first thing at which Findlay has ever turned up his nose. Remember, Findlay eats...well, you surely recall the kinds of things he eats (and I'm not talkin' about green beans here!), but he won't lick a spoon that has touched this cat food.

A Game within a Game

For the first time, Eric joined in the Cheerio Game this morning.

While shooting Fin his daily Cheerios across the table, I caught a glimpse of Eric wandering past. I distracted Fin with a quick one to his right, and shot another to Eric past Fin's left. Eric ate that lone Cheerio while I shot five more to Fin. We repeated this pattern a few times, and now it's a game - Eric grazes leisurely in the distance while Fin gobbles like a madman up front. It reminds me of the Simpsons episode "Grift of the Magi" where Bart and Lisa sing Christmas carols at the front door while Homer steals presents in the background.

Predator(s) and Prey

I get up fairly early and stroll to my office to do a little work before breakfast. Eric comes with me while the rest of the family sleeps. He scurries around doing whatever dogs do in the wee hours of the morning (or are they the wee-wee hours?), and I let him in the office after about twenty minutes.

One morning, after Eric went his way and I went mine, I found Cloudy and Hagrid, the outdoor cats, playing with a mouse. I instantly decided to let nature take its course - who am I to rattle the food chain? - and continued to my office.

After the usual twenty minutes, having forgotten all about the mouse and cats, I opened the door to check for Eric. There he was, playing with the mouse, and quite vigorously, at that! He had reduced Cloudy and Hagrid to mere spectators, and the mouse wasn't too happy, either. This time, I instantly decided nature's course was wrong. I scooped up Eric, took him inside and gave him doggie treats to get his little mind off the mouse.

The mouse's fate is still unlearned, to paraphrase the Kingston Trio; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_on_the_MTA.

Race results

In Friday's Race Through The Meadow (see "The Gauntlet is Thrown Down"), Eric and I were able to beat Findlay at first because we took him by surprise, and because he was carrying a big red Jolly Ball. On Saturday, Fin knew that the game was afoot as soon as I passed him on my bike, so he dropped his Jolly Ball and handily beat Eric and me to the woods, through the woods and back up the hill.

Today, Fin not only knew the race was on, but was so sure of winning that he copped an attitude. After he beat Eric and I to the woods, he lead us into the pasture where he proceeded to give himself a handicap: he pooped while Eric and I were struggling up the hill! What's worse, he still beat us!

At least I beat Eric, but not by much.