From The Bark

I ran across this story on Jerry Pournelle's Web Site... They're inside of it. They crawled inside, and now I have a giant incredibly heavy piece of carcass in my yard, with 2 dogs inside of it, and they are NOT getting bored of it and coming out. One of them is snoring. I have company arriving in three hours, and my current plan is to 1. put up a tent over said carcass and 2. hang thousands of fly strips inside it. This has been going on since about 6:40 this morning...

A dog saved a woman's life by calling 911 and then unlocked the door for the rescuers.

A female monkey cuddles a puppy.

"Many of you already know that chocolate can make your cat or dog sick, but did you know that onions can kill? I learned this in my second year in veterinary school. But I didn't really appreciate it until the big onion incident that occurred during my senior year. Well, maybe the incident wasn't all that big; it involved only one dog. But it was my own dog, Max, a 72-pound adult boxer. And it nearly killed him..."

The rest of the story is at SFGate.com.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has a nice web site on dogs.

During a conversation I had with Store Manager, Bruce Lee, of Nordstrom Walnut Creek, I thanked him for the store's policy of allowing dogs in their store. He was VERY surprised to receive positive feedback on this subject. The policy is one set by the Nordstrom family, but he said that he has started to receive complaints from customers. He is a dog owner and lover so I could tell he is on our side. He welcomes feedback from customers. Next time you are in the store page him and speak to him and let him know you support the policy. You can also write to him at:

Brian G. Lee
Store Manager - Walnut Creek Nordstrom
1200 Broadway Plaza
Walnut Creek, CA 94596-5129

We were recently asked if the San Miguel park is enclosed. The answer is that it is not, two sides are closed but two are open.

Sometime in March. A Saturday morning. 3:30 a.m. The sky is dark and stormy. Some would say "sultry". I need an inspiration. Thousands of people are putting up web sites every day. I want to do something unique. Something that would make people want to visit my site. But what? Everything that could possibly be cataloged and tracked has already been done on the Web. Or so I think...

A bolt of lightning strikes something close to the house. My dog, Ellie, sticks her cold, wet nose in my face. It's her way of saying, "Get up out of bed and let me out! I gotta go! Now, damnit!" Ellie doesn't like thunderstorms, and has been known to drop a log in fear. I hurry Ellie downstairs and out the back door.

Saturday morning. 9:30 a.m. I am performing the suburban ritual practiced by millions of people around the world. Before mowing the lawn, I am picking up dog feces with a shovel, "harvesting the crop", so to speak, and depositing the load in a pile of grass clippings.

Almost finished scooping. Wait! What's that shiny thing over there? Bending down, I see a dog turd. Looking closer (but not too close), I am amazed at what I see: An entire strand of purple Mardi Gras beads that I had caught a few weeks before at the Galveston Mardi Gras celebration. And the strand is intact. Suddenly, a burst of inspiration!

And so another quality Web Site is born.