I'm Being Watched

I was sitting sideways at my desk last night, fooling around with my computer while a game I was watching was delayed by weather, when I got the distinct feeling that I was being stared at. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Banichi was asleep on my pillow; Lovey was on top of the cat tree; I slowly turned a bit more, toward the TV, and saw there were two squirrels sitting on top of the TV, one on each corner. Both Gimpy and the other squirrel were staring at me with great concentration - and it slowly dawned on me that I had no peanuts placed on the floor by the patio door for them. They sat and watched me put out nuts for them, then, once I was again sitting, they ran down to the nuts and started stuffing themselves. - I'm going to have to go to the AKC website and look at breeds again: I met a dog yesterday, that looked like a Cairn terrier, but was twice that size. I had finished walking the Rs and was returning to the bus stop, when a couple walked by with the dog on a lead. The dog immediately stopped and came toward me, ignoring its owners. The owners kept going, so the dog had to, also, but it kept stopping and looking back at me. Finally the owners released the lead, and the dog ran to me for a good scratch and rub, then it licked my hand, and ran back to its owners. This stopped the owners, who wanted to know why there dog was attracted to me. I just shrugged and asked, "Animal magnetism?" I've had this effect on animals since I was a small child... and I'm used to it, but I have gotten tired of trying to explain it. - The Rs and I had a good three mile walk yesterday - we meandered through the trail system from their house to the grocery store at Iris and 28th, walked around the parking lot, meeting and greeting other dogs and people, and then returned home by another circuitous route. We stopped four times for water, and Rosie literally threw herself into the water at each stop, flopping on her belly and drinking ahead of her paws; Remy drank only at the last stop, but did play in the water at the third one.

The kits have been marvelous companions, and Lovey is just as mouthy as ever (she's talking to me right now, sitting between me and the monitor). ... The stolen Dachshund puppy was returned to the Boulder Valley Humane Society - a woman brought it back, stating that another woman had given it to her outside a grocery store in Longmont, claiming that she (the giver) was allergic to dogs, and hadn't known it. ... This morning's newspaper says there are 40 to 50 CU freshmen with H1N1. ... Hurricane Danny is expected to brush the coast along Virginia's Eastern Shore today. Once again I am hoping for very little beach erosion. ... I am about to start reading C J Cherryh's newest atevi novel, featuring Bren Cameron, Banichi, and Jago. So I'll be stuck in another world for several hours. ... And, finally, local police and the FBI caught "The Shaggy Bandit", a man who has robbed 14 banks in Colorado and 3 neighboring states in the past 2 months. The robber walked into a Tier Bank, here in Boulder yesterday, and looked around (as if casing the joint); as soon as he left, an alert teller called the police, a vehicle that matched the description of the bandit's was seen close to the bank, and the man and his accomplice were arrested in the parking lot of the Red Lobster in Longmont.
Wooo-hooooo! Tomorrow's the weekend!!