RIP Smithers Brake

As those of you here know, Smithers Brake, aka Smithers Crosbie, aka "Bumdarts" (to Nick's friends) was put down Friday. Jill and I just picked up his ashes with Mom, who plans to keep them at St Philips until eventually they will be buried with Bob (not for a long time we hope!).

He had a very quick decline over the last week-- when I got here, he was in great shape except for some problems with his back legs, and everyone was worried about Ellie. Anyway, he suddenly stopped eating and drinking, and we barely got a wag out of him during Nick's birthday party (where the pictures were taken). He was still wanting to join the party though, and had his wits about him. But a few days later, he could barely move, so Mom made the big decision.

He will no doubt be missed by those who had the chance to live with him particularly (Jill and Sue) and remembered fondly for his love of unlikely foods (lettuce, for example), his love of being held in strange positions, and his unrelenting good humour.

He was as happy a dog as Abby was an unhappy cat!

Redback

Well, after the comic briliance of my last post, time to turn to the most serious subject of them all: life and death.

Jill spotted the dreaded redback spider in a package of prewrapped grapes yesterday. This is a spider closely resembling the blackwidow (an 80s beast if there ever was one). It is also deathly venemous: hopefully jill will post the pictures soon for you all to get some chills happening.

Let's just say we weren't eager to make either a pet or petner of it...

Heterosexual life petners

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bradford/7204543.stm

I was dismayed to learn of the strife in the Prince homestead. It turns out, while "being walked" by his hetersexual life partner (so we thought! --they are in fact petners) Cocobutter, Jbird's own father prevented them from boarding the ol' metrobus. Their outrage has led them to lash out at Metrobus:

"The black-clad couple said they had been told to leave one bus and prevented from boarding another. The bus firm said safety came first, but it was investigating the complaint. Mr Clark(e?) told BBC Look North: "We're used to strange looks, we're used to comments. But we didn't expect it from someone like that. They're providing a public service. We had our bus passes, we did everything that you are supposed to do to get on a bus."


"Our primary concern is passenger safety and while the couple are very welcome to travel on our buses, we are asking that Miss Prince remove her dog lead before boarding the bus. It could be dangerous for the couple and other passengers if a driver had to brake sharply while Miss Maltby was wearing the lead."

Miss Prince said she came up with the idea to wear a dog lead, and said previous boyfriends had called her a "weirdo" when she suggested it.

The couple said they "loved each other to pieces" and the use of the lead was a "sign of trust".

Mr Clark(e) said: "She's very animal like, she's kind of like a pet, as well as a partner."

He said he "does everything" for his girlfriend, including laying out clothes for her, feeding her and cleaning their house.

He said: "You wouldn't expect your cat or dog to do the washing up or cleaning round the house."

Hm. Not sure what to think of that. I guess I feel bad for you guys...