I can't believe he ate the whole...

I woke this morning, a little after four, not to the crunching noises that would otherwise have roused me, but to Ghost's clamor to get out and give something in the meadow a good barking. But having been roused, and having struggled to the door to release the hound, I then became aware of the crunching.

Ghost and Little Bear spent the night in the lair with me, which they've been doing lately. I let Ghost out and blearily looked around to see what Little Bear was up to. I found him on the floor, contentedly snogging down on...something. I mentally inventoried my boots: He's already scored an entire pair of sandals and I barely rescued a boot from him but that was a month ago. Since then he's left my intact footwear alone. I looked more closely. Little Bear was happily eating the north end of...a rabbit? Where the hell did he get a rabbit? I know he didn't go out overnight, and I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed if he'd come in with a rabbit. Where, as I said, the hell did he get a rabbit?

I kicked him out: He was reluctant to go until I made it clear that I was not only willing but anxious for him to take his treasure with him. And since then he's been contented crouched in his Treasure Spot, which currently contains an old sandal, a baseball, a tiny portion of deer antler, and (now he's a literature critic?) a dismembered copy of Wrinkle in Time. He rotates the contents of his Treasure Spot. All that was left of the rabbit by the time I'd had my coffee and it occurred to me that this called for a photograph, was a single hind leg. He'd industriously eaten all the rest.

And yet the question remained. Where the hell did Little Bear get a rabbit? The only possible answer is that Click brought it in, ate what she wanted of it, and left the rest for the dogs. Ghost is a very picky eater, and - though he loves to chase them above all things - has never been interested in eating rabbits. So he wouldn't compete for it. It isn't the first rabbit she's caught, but it's the first I know of in years. They're as big as she is, and she must have really worked to get it in through the cat door. I do hope Little Bear at least expressed gratitude.

At a little over four and a half months, Little Bear is now knee-high and growing. We can't decide what he's going to look like: No matter how big he gets he still looks like a big puppy. His parentage includes Akita, Shepherd and Doberman, but he doesn't really look like any of those. W has speculated that maybe Heather had three daddies, and that one of them was a Newfie.


Either way, the days of his nads are now officially numbered. W and I went to a nearby town that has a vet to get a bot fly larva removed from Beauty's tender torso yesterday, and while there I made an appointment for late next month to have the Deed Done. Lick'em while you got'em, Little Bear.