I have to comment on the woman whose dog's feet smelled like fritos. They did indeed. I had NEVER before noticed the aroma of dog feet, but her noticing that interesting aspect of her dog's composition has had me sniffing dog feet ever since. And you know what? They ALL have frito-feet. I just hope this isn't because they tend to step in their urine.

Animals are odd creatures. I have found out other fascinating things about animals along the way. For example, if you wrap an ace bandage around a cat's belly, it can't walk. It will stumble and fall. I have tried this on many cats. The bandage doesn't have to be wrapped tightly. No cats were injured in any way during these experiments. I swear. I love animals! But it is a weird truth that they cannot walk with any stability with a bandage around their bellies. I do need to do further research though, and find out if this is true of anything wrapped around their middles, or only elastic things.

I have also learned a strange and interesting thing about parrot behavior. My parrot likes to nip fingers, but he won't do it as long as I stare into his eyes aggressively. But if I am doing that, he will duck his head under my hand where he can't see my eyes, and nip my fingers from BELOW my hand. Damn bird. But this is a very limited experiment. I have only used it on one bird. I'll let you know when I have collected more data.

I don't know what it is about animals that appeals to me so much. Clearly, I spend too much time with mine. I often think how much simpler (and less smelly) my life would be with no pets. But somehow, I have managed to always have at least one in my life, and usually far more than one. Even if I do nothing to actively acquire animals, they just show up. Right now the count is pretty moderate: one dog, four cats, one bird, and a couple dozen fish. Not bad really, until I want to go on vacation. It is almost as hard to get someone to keep your animals as it is to get someone to keep your kids...

oh -- to the woman with the frito-footed dog -- give me a call sometime. It might be interesting to catch up a bit. :)