Harper the Killer

Only tangentially related to food. I was in the front yard harvesting some chives when I hear Harper barking from the backyard. It was the same bark she uses when she's playing with another dog, and the dog is taking a time out and lying down and refusing to run around. It's sort of her, "come on, play with me!" bark, and is usually accompanied by a play bow. I go to the back to see what the ruckus is and I see Harper poking and barking at a rather dead mouse. Since she left it alone rather quickly once I yelled at her and hadn't already tried to eat it, I'm guessing she didn't see it as a food source, but rather as a playmate (it is very difficult to separate Harper from food. Not that she's protective of it and growls, just that she gulps food down so quickly there's no opportunity). I don't know if I would be more disturbed by her actually going after a mouse to kill it on purpose, or that she accidentally killed what she thought was a playmate.... well, either way, that's one less mouse that we have to worry about getting into the house!

It's a lazy, dog-dangling afternoon

Harper is plain worn out from all the confusion. Is Brett Favre retiring? Is he not retiring? Poor Harper, her fantasy football team is all in disarray.

For those of you who enjoy this sort of thing, here's a couple cute pictures of Harper dog. I can exactly date and approximately time that picture with me in it, because I'm reading the last Harry Potter, which took me 12 hours to read on the day it came out. Since I'm almost halfway through it, it must have been taken at about 4pm on July 21, 2007. Harper thinks that chair is her chair, so if I sit in it to read, she insists on joining me. I just like the lighting in the other picture, it makes Harper look like she's in a glossy magazine.

Here's a picture from last fall. Chris bought Harper a Redskins jersey. She's none too happy about this and is giving us the ol' stink eye because, you see, she's a Cleveland Browns fan. It's really the only thing that Chris and Harper don't see eye to eye on. We're a family divided by loyalties, like the War of the Roses. This fall's going to be rough, what with the AFC North playing the NFC East. Chris and Harper are going to be sad puppies when the 'Skins sweep them.