I’ve never heard of such a thing happening. What’s more – the friend it happened to is a veterinarian, and neither she or her friends in the industry have heard of it.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a warning, because it’s something I never would have thought of – but knowing our cat, it doesn’t sound all that unfathomable. Just something extra to keep in mind when it comes to kids/pets and Christmas tree safety.

She was climbing up on a patio chair, knocking icicles off the roof overhang and eating them.

She brought one in the house, in fact, and is munching it in the middle of the living room as we speak. This shouldn’t surprise me, seeing as I also caught her eating a bag of ice I’d thrown out in the snow to make room for some stuff in my freezer. What a weirdo.

Don’t worry – I Googled the hell out of it, and it is being reported both dogs were okay. If you hear anything to the contrary, I DON’T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT.

Hmm. ‘Stampeding mob of Black Friday Wal-Mart shoppers tramples employee to death and then bitches when the store gets shut down’… vs. ‘Dog dodges speeding vehicles to drag injured buddy to safety.’

Or we have people abusing and abandoning their children… vs. multiple stories of dogs saving (human) babies.

Sheesh. Is it any wonder I like most animals better than most people?

—

Speaking of black labs, get this. My sister has been looking for one lately for herself. Saturday, she gets a call from a friend of hers, who is on vacation in Weiser, Idaho for a family reunion. He asks if she still wants a lab, because he has one if she does. He goes on to say that he was doing the family reunion thing at a public park in town, when he notices a lady driving by the park, slowing down. He thought she was acting kind of weird, so he kept watching – only to see her toss a puppy out the car window and speed off. 

W. T. F.

He goes over and retrieves the puppy, who appears to be in perfect health, is quite cute, and probably about 6 weeks old. He got the little bugger some puppy chow, and it’s eating fine. He told my sister he thinks it’s a black lab cross, because it looks very lab-like but has a little white spot on its chest and a couple little white spots on its foot. I got to thinking about it, and I wonder if it might actually be pure lab, as the only color variation “acceptable” for black labs is a white chest spot. If the lady in the car was a psycho breed snob, she may have dumped the little guy for having non-breed-standard markings on his foot. It would also possibly explain why there was only one puppy to dump – the rest of the litter might be “up to standard.”

This led me to think, okay, but what kind of lab breeder would throw a purebred puppy out the window of a car instead of just selling/giving it away as a pet? Which in turn led me to think, scratch that, what kind of HUMAN BEING throws ANY KIND of puppy out the window of a car instead of just selling/giving it away as a pet!?

Seriously – I want to know how that lady sleeps at night. Also, if anybody can reconcile “People who abuse animals are to be shot on sight” with libertarian philosophy, please tell me how. Because I’d so love for that to be a rule in Laureltopia.

—

On a final pet-related note, I’m about to go spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $120 for a three-month supply of Frontline for two dogs and a cat. The ticks are OUT. OF. CONTROL. this year. I hadn’t so much as seen a tick since moving to Idaho in ‘03, yet this year we’re finding them everywhere. To make matters worse, Mike has to traipse around in tall grass for his job, so he keeps finding them crawling on himself. Unfortunately they don’t appear to make Man Frontline (though I have threatened to get the “large breed” kind for him), so I’m hoping tackling it at the pet level will curb most of the problem. Gross.

The good news: There’s apparently little to no Lyme disease in Idaho, and I think the ticks we’ve been finding are American dog ticks as opposed to deer ticks, which don’t carry it anyway. So, assuming we can avoid Rocky Mountain spotted fever, we’re probably alright. Other than being totally squicked out.

Yeah yeah, I know… Close enough.

At least I’m having this along with it:

Organic, grass-fed beef tri-tip. Peppercorn marinated. Charcoal BBQed to medium perfection. I can almost cut it with the fork. SO GOOD.

Gipper would like me to know he’s interested in some sort of food-sharing arrangement. But not too interested.

And here’s what happens when I don’t share quickly enough:

He’s so nonchalant about his thievery – he won’t even get up to steal. Further proof the cat is king of the household. 

Oh. My. Lord. I really hope she stays asleep for a little while. I’m worn out and it’s barely 9 am.