bites

Kids are funny. They talk with squeaky voices, they run around escaping vacuum cleaners, making pinecones into supper, and they hit and bite each other. I like their tiny little fingers and toes, and the silly things they say.

A two year old once asked me (after a very quiet 20 minutes as he was supposedly falling asleep): "When a shark bites you, do you die?"

"Uh.... I don't know, what do you think?"

"I think, yeah, you do."

A four year old saw me one day without makeup, and the next day with makeup (and combed hair) and said, "You don't look like you, you look beautiful."

And then there is the precocious three year old who bit her twin sister on the inner thigh, leaving a purple mark and even a little bit of blood. When told "Don't bite Sissy," she replied, "But I'm a dinosaur."

Who can argue with that?

Dinosaur courtesy of Amazing World

Calvin and Hobbes comic courtesy

bad dog

How to make a taxidermy mouse-duck and other duck pond adventures.

Sad days. Here is the story as it was told to me:

Yester-evening Pup was taken for a walk to a nearby leash-free area which contains a couple of very nice little ponds with pretty ducks swimming dreamily, dreaming their little duck dreams and doing their little duck things.

Pup splashed around a bit and the ducks fluttered in annoyance and moved to the other pond. Pup followed, still splashing, and just as the camera was coming out to take a little video of this silly sweet pup and the healthy free ducks . . .

Sweet Pup turned into Villainous Duck-attack Pup.

I wasn't there. Thank goodness I wasn't there or I may never be able to pet Pup again, or walk lackadaisically as he sniffs mailbox posts, or let him curl up all 'cute and cuddly' while I read my book.

In the end, we don't know exactly what happened to the duck. I'm assuming the worst. I'm wishing he'd be okay and that the trickle of blood on his beak wasn't what it was.

It's never happened before and I hope it will never happen again. I'm sorry to be happy that I wasn't around when it happened, but it makes me a little ill just thinking about it.

Sorry, duck.

He was a bad, bad dog.

In case you wanted to learn how to make a taxidermy mouse into a mouse-duck, click here.