Cats, Dogs, a Horse & Squirrels

Finished reading The Last Kingdom last night - first part of a series by Bernard Cornwell about a Northumbrian Saxon, raised by the Danes, who ends up fighting for King Alfred in Wessex.  Fantastic book, the first of four, and they are all wonderfully researched and well-written.  Took Boo over to play with Charlie yesterday afternoon, and was rewarded with wearing out both dogs... Charlie went and slept in her kennel, while Boo slept at my feet.  It was amazing quiet for a while.
  Nedi and Lovey are out running about this morning.  I've already taken care of Charlie and Tinkerbelle, Lilly and Lyra, and Tugger and Sasquatch.  Have to scoot back to Charlie's house to fix the stuff for the Snow family Christmas gathering this afternoon.  Today we'll meet in Niwot, at Dave and Tracey's home, instead of the Grange, so there will be a steady stream of folks coming and going.  At least today's menu is "finger food."
   I did laugh loudly this morning.  Soon after I arrived home, and having loved and fed Lovey and Nedi, and then cleaning their litter boxes, I heard a lot of scuffling sounds - like the kits were diving after something among the dried, dead leaves that have blown up on the patio.  A few moments later, I saw a squirrel tail frisk across the top of one of the patio chairs, and I realized that I hadn't put out any nuts for them.  I walked over to the patio door, and discovered the bag of nuts was not sitting there on the floor.  I looked out the door, and there was the bag, with three new holes in it, sitting about eight inches from the threshold.  The squirrels decided to help themselves when I didn't feed them soon enough.  All the crackling I heard was not leaves, but the squirrels dragging the bag of nuts out and helping themselves.
  And New Year's Day, the surprise winner of the Breeders Cup Juvenile in November has been retired from racing.  He developed a chip in his sesamoids and since it wasn't certain whether he would be able to race again, his owners decided to retire him early, and put him at stud.