"Balloon Boy"?!?

I'm very glad that I did not have the TV on yesterday afternoon; as it was, I turned it on just before 4 p.m., about three minutes before Falcon Heene ("the Balloon Boy") came down from his perch in the garage attic. Even though I had missed all the "drama" of the UFO balloon chase and the speculation on the boy's where-abouts as it played out on live TV, I received more than enough information during the evening, night, and this morning. When the boy appeared, he told a police officer that he had hidden in the attic "for the show." I, personally, don't know what happened, nor do I really care. The boy is home and safe. With today's almost instantaneous communications, it seems that almost every news item is blown out of proportion. Since the Heene family had participated in a reality show ("Wife Swap" or some such thing) lots of people had questions when the boy wandered back downstairs and made his original statement. Did the family want more publicity? Did they want to draw attention to their "scientific creations?" Again, I don't know and I don't care. The boy is home and safe. I hope the media will give this story, boy, and family a rest. File this as another "only in Colorado" story.

As I was walking the red kids through the neighborhood this morning, I came upon a tail beside the road. Remy and Rosie were interested in it, and I examined it. It was definitely a tail - but I could not definitely say whether it was the last half of a cat's tail or the whole tail of a small dog. The fur had been wet and had dried in the sun, and the hair seemed too coarse for a cat's tail, but then, some cats do have coarse fur. The appendage had been neatly severed from the rest of the body, and tooth marks could be discerned on the bones that were exposed. The local mountain lion has been spotted the last couple of nights in the neighborhood, and a fur-less, skin-less, head-less, and tail-less carcass was found yesterday in a neighbor's yard. No one I spoke to in the immediate area knows of a missing dog or cat - especially one that had a black-tipped white tail. ... Lovey is currently sitting on the corner of the desk, and Banichi is sitting just outside the door. And Gimpy, the squirrel, has decided he's house-broken. I have not seen him urinate in the litter box, but yesterday afternoon, while sitting and eating nuts, I noticed him looking at me, then the kits, and at his pile of dinner nuts. When neither I nor the cats moved, Gimpy walked over to the closest litter box, settled in it and dropped a load. I was amazed. Then he just walked back over to the pile of nuts, sat down and resumed eating. Weird.