Contest November 2016

Subject: Fish Story
Date: 3/28/01 9:58 PM
From: Jo Lunetta
To: Susan Marsicano

Toulouse has got a new hankering - fish! He has now started to steal from
the cupboard - tuna fish and sardine cans. Taking them to the couch, opening
them. Cricket, not to be left out, then helps herself to some of the morsels.
Now if I could just get them to launder the couch and dog bed covers to remove the smell.
In the mean time all fish cans are at the top of the pantry.

Marcia & George Woodard's Lili, Lani, and Chloe drinking the last of their morning coffee.

Trill Marsicano likes his ice-cream.

When Laser was a puppy, I remember thinking he wasn't very smart - until he started outsmarting Selket, which was funny. But he was also naughty, and I had learned not to leave my coffee where he could get to it, especially in our new-to-us house that had a nice sunroom for the doggies but an underfloor of concrete. If I propped my mug on a window sill or the table there, Laser would knock it down to get the java, resulting in smashed mugs and a coffee mess, let alone the possibility of a scalded puppy.

One weekday morning I was helping him to understand "Too Hot!" and "Not for You," and rewarding him with his then-favorite, Puppy Drumstick cookies. I needed to take a bathroom break, so I ducked into the loo leaving the hot mug o'Joe - in a fine craft mug I did not want broken - on the coffee table in the living room and admonishing him the coffee was "Too Hot and Not for You," popping him a cookie, and hoping he would behave and that if he didn't, the living room carpet would save my mug.

When I emerged moments later he was sitting on the ve-e-ery edge of the sofa cushion, his snout hovering over the steaming cup on the table and his forelegs braced against the cushion edge. I said "Too Hot!" and he recoiled a bit while I snatched up my mug - only to discover a Puppy Drumstick floating in my latte! I fished it out, cooled it off, and returned it to him, unsure whether to praise or not, but absolutely tickled at his wit. We soon discovered the shared pleasure of dunking Stella D'Oro daisy petals and Goya Maria cookies.