Contraband

Look at that gorgeous swirly belly. Could you deny that dog anything?

For instance, your mitten?

I worked from home today, tidying up the Sunday books pages remotely, and then reading--I have 13 more books I have to read for National Book Critics Circle before mid-March, and my plan is to polish off three of them this weekend. I have almost made it through one, and then tomorrow's book is a short one, and then I'll start on one of the two novels I have yet to read.

I love the reading but hate the panicking.

Today began at 5:10 a.m., as usual (hooray for sleeping through the night, Angus!) and has been about 3/4 reading and 1/4 dogs. I walked them separately, and it works so well--Angus is actually pretty good on the leash without Rosie, not pulling much but walking nicely, only occasionally grabbing things such as my mitten or the poop bag or the leash. (And in his defense, these things are swinging above his head in a most distracting way.)

We walked for about 40 minutes and when we got home I gave him a puffy toy to chew on the living room floor. After a while I thought, Hmmm, that puffy toy sure sounds oddly crunchy.

And I walked over and saw the little red thing that I thought was an eyeball he had pulled out of the toy, and I thought, That's irresponsible, putting these choking-hazard eyeballs into a chew toy! But I was quick (I am quick) to see that they weren't eyeballs at all, but some kind of little red LED lights, and the crunchy thing was one of the fuses.

If you look closely, you can see little Angus teeth-marks on one of the fuses.

Holy mother of god. I have no idea where these came from, or how he found them, or why he thought they were more fun than a puffy toy. I'm not sure what a fuse would do to the innards of a puppy, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be good.

To which Angus says, from his soft bed by the radiator, La de da, la de da.