I'm in a better mood now because of what just happened.


A few weeks ago I bought a soapstone cat at a garage sale. It is a
little statuette, about 9" high of carved black and white soapstone from
Kenya. I thought it attractive, and for 50 cents, who's to complain.
I'm not sure how much it looks like a cat as it is very stylized of a
seated cat but with the shape elongated and a face with large carved
eyes and stripes. I'd say any person would recognize that it's supposed
to be a cat, but wouldn't vouch for a dog making that stretch. For the
past few weeks, the soapstone cat has sat on a sideboard type piece of
furniture in the dining room along with other such items: the glass
egg, the crystal pyramid that refracts light, two decorative plates, the
beautiful cocoa set Jim got from his aunt, a plaster flamingo, etc.


Tonight as I was on the computer and Jim reading in the bedroom, Cubbe
started to bark her low bark. There were growls interspersed. At first
I assumed there was someone outside and that she was barking out the
window, but when it didn't subside after a minute, I got up to look.
She was barking at the sideboard. Bark bark bark, run around the table,
bark, wag, growl, bark bark. I thought Jim would be interested. I
promised Cubbe I would protect her from whatever it was. I knelt to
inspect under the sideboard to see if a critter was around. I checked
walls. Cubbe is not a neurotic barker. I might not understand what
she's barking at, but she always has a good reason, one that makes sense
to her.


After a moment of not knowing what it could be and seeing her barking in
one direction only, I picked up the soapstone cat, and sure enough,
Cubbe backed away from it. I put it in my hand for her to inspect. It
was a repeat of the time she found a ceramic turtle in a neighbor's
yard. She approached, sniffed, ran back, turned, barked a little more.
I placed it on the floor so she could inspect at her own pace. To say
that the thing is lifeless is an exaggeration. The thing is soapstone!
And it doesn't even look much like a real cat.


Cubbe is now hiding under the futon. I believe she's embarrassed.


--Lia

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:49:16 GMT, Julia Altshuler
wrote:

I'm in a better mood now because of what just happened.

A few weeks ago I bought a soapstone cat at a garage sale. It is a
little statuette, about 9" high of carved black and white soapstone from
Kenya. I thought it attractive, and for 50 cents, who's to complain.
[snip]
After a moment of not knowing what it could be and seeing her barking in
one direction only, I picked up the soapstone cat, and sure enough,
Cubbe backed away from it. I put it in my hand for her to inspect. It
was a repeat of the time she found a ceramic turtle in a neighbor's
yard. She approached, sniffed, ran back, turned, barked a little more.
I placed it on the floor so she could inspect at her own pace. To say
that the thing is lifeless is an exaggeration. The thing is soapstone!
And it doesn't even look much like a real cat.

Cubbe is now hiding under the futon. I believe she's embarrassed.

snort If Ozzy did that, *I'd* be hiding under the futon in
embarrassment. :-)

That said, I've got a picture of Ozzy looking over his shoulder with a
*very* suspicious expression on his face...at a 20" resin alligator.
Detente was eventually achieved: "Elvis" is now out back under the
jade plants, presumably protecting Ozzy from the Wall Lizards. (Either
that or plotting Global Domination, what the hell do *I* know?)

Lee

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:49:16 GMT, Julia Altshuler
wrote:

I'm in a better mood now because of what just happened.

A few weeks ago I bought a soapstone cat at a garage sale. It is a
little statuette, about 9" high of carved black and white soapstone from
Kenya. I thought it attractive, and for 50 cents, who's to complain.
[snip]
After a moment of not knowing what it could be and seeing her barking in
one direction only, I picked up the soapstone cat, and sure enough,
Cubbe backed away from it. I put it in my hand for her to inspect. It
was a repeat of the time she found a ceramic turtle in a neighbor's
yard. She approached, sniffed, ran back, turned, barked a little more.
I placed it on the floor so she could inspect at her own pace. To say
that the thing is lifeless is an exaggeration. The thing is soapstone!
And it doesn't even look much like a real cat.

Cubbe is now hiding under the futon. I believe she's embarrassed.

snort If Ozzy did that, *I'd* be hiding under the futon in
embarrassment. :-)

That said, I've got a picture of Ozzy looking over his shoulder with a
*very* suspicious expression on his face...at a 20" resin alligator.
Detente was eventually achieved: "Elvis" is now out back under the
jade plants, presumably protecting Ozzy from the Wall Lizards. (Either
that or plotting Global Domination, what the hell do *I* know?)

Lee

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:49:16 GMT, Julia Altshuler
wrote:

I'm in a better mood now because of what just happened.

A few weeks ago I bought a soapstone cat at a garage sale. It is a
little statuette, about 9" high of carved black and white soapstone from
Kenya. I thought it attractive, and for 50 cents, who's to complain.
[snip]
After a moment of not knowing what it could be and seeing her barking in
one direction only, I picked up the soapstone cat, and sure enough,
Cubbe backed away from it. I put it in my hand for her to inspect. It
was a repeat of the time she found a ceramic turtle in a neighbor's
yard. She approached, sniffed, ran back, turned, barked a little more.
I placed it on the floor so she could inspect at her own pace. To say
that the thing is lifeless is an exaggeration. The thing is soapstone!
And it doesn't even look much like a real cat.

Cubbe is now hiding under the futon. I believe she's embarrassed.

snort If Ozzy did that, *I'd* be hiding under the futon in
embarrassment. :-)

That said, I've got a picture of Ozzy looking over his shoulder with a
*very* suspicious expression on his face...at a 20" resin alligator.
Detente was eventually achieved: "Elvis" is now out back under the
jade plants, presumably protecting Ozzy from the Wall Lizards. (Either
that or plotting Global Domination, what the hell do *I* know?)

Lee

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:49:16 GMT Julia Altshuler whittled these words:
I'm in a better mood now because of what just happened.

:-)

Sometimes they just do things that puzzle us. Last weekend at the agility
trial Tsuki had his attention on something across the arena. He wasn't
really barking just a little wuff from time to time. But he was on his
tippy toes watching whatever it was intently. Because the corridor where
we were isn't very wide people kept passing in between Tsuki and the
arena. If they so much as paused Tsuki moved to keep his eye one the
whatever. On person stopped to chat and really irritated Tsuki because
she was rocking back and forth forcing him to keep moving to keep his eye
on *it*. Several of us looked his way to see if we could figure it out
but none of us were seeing in dog vision. Eventually I walked around the
arena with him but since some of the arena has covered sides he couldn't
keep track of *it*. When we got over there he found nothing of any
interest at all so the mystery continues.

--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dog-play.com/shop2.html

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:49:16 GMT Julia Altshuler whittled these words:
I'm in a better mood now because of what just happened.

:-)

Sometimes they just do things that puzzle us. Last weekend at the agility
trial Tsuki had his attention on something across the arena. He wasn't
really barking just a little wuff from time to time. But he was on his
tippy toes watching whatever it was intently. Because the corridor where
we were isn't very wide people kept passing in between Tsuki and the
arena. If they so much as paused Tsuki moved to keep his eye one the
whatever. On person stopped to chat and really irritated Tsuki because
she was rocking back and forth forcing him to keep moving to keep his eye
on *it*. Several of us looked his way to see if we could figure it out
but none of us were seeing in dog vision. Eventually I walked around the
arena with him but since some of the arena has covered sides he couldn't
keep track of *it*. When we got over there he found nothing of any
interest at all so the mystery continues.

--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dog-play.com/shop2.html

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:49:16 GMT Julia Altshuler whittled these words:
I'm in a better mood now because of what just happened.

:-)

Sometimes they just do things that puzzle us. Last weekend at the agility
trial Tsuki had his attention on something across the arena. He wasn't
really barking just a little wuff from time to time. But he was on his
tippy toes watching whatever it was intently. Because the corridor where
we were isn't very wide people kept passing in between Tsuki and the
arena. If they so much as paused Tsuki moved to keep his eye one the
whatever. On person stopped to chat and really irritated Tsuki because
she was rocking back and forth forcing him to keep moving to keep his eye
on *it*. Several of us looked his way to see if we could figure it out
but none of us were seeing in dog vision. Eventually I walked around the
arena with him but since some of the arena has covered sides he couldn't
keep track of *it*. When we got over there he found nothing of any
interest at all so the mystery continues.

--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dog-play.com/shop2.html

I'm thinking about this more. I've said before that there's a logic to
Cubbe's barking. In the past, Cubbe has gotten interested in inanimate
objects that looked like critters. There was the ceramic turtle
incident, and there was the time she was going nuts over a little
plaster lawn sculpture of a baby racoon. In those instances, an effort
had been made to make the thing look real. I'm not saying they were
particularly realistic, but I could imagine doing a doubletake. At
least there was something to the size and coloring. In those cases,
Cubbe would see, bark, react, study for several minutes, realize that it
Was Not Moving, and finally walk on never to pay it the least attention
again. With this in mind, I'm trying to figure out the mystery of the
soapstone cat. It's the least realistic of Cubbe's targets in size and
stylized design, but it does have the ears, eyes and stripes of a
critter-- rather like the plaster racoon. I wonder if that's what it
takes. I wonder if I painted something of the sort big on cardboard if
that would do it. Or maybe that would be mean. Hmmm.


--Lia

I'm thinking about this more. I've said before that there's a logic to
Cubbe's barking. In the past, Cubbe has gotten interested in inanimate
objects that looked like critters. There was the ceramic turtle
incident, and there was the time she was going nuts over a little
plaster lawn sculpture of a baby racoon. In those instances, an effort
had been made to make the thing look real. I'm not saying they were
particularly realistic, but I could imagine doing a doubletake. At
least there was something to the size and coloring. In those cases,
Cubbe would see, bark, react, study for several minutes, realize that it
Was Not Moving, and finally walk on never to pay it the least attention
again. With this in mind, I'm trying to figure out the mystery of the
soapstone cat. It's the least realistic of Cubbe's targets in size and
stylized design, but it does have the ears, eyes and stripes of a
critter-- rather like the plaster racoon. I wonder if that's what it
takes. I wonder if I painted something of the sort big on cardboard if
that would do it. Or maybe that would be mean. Hmmm.


--Lia

I'm thinking about this more. I've said before that there's a logic to
Cubbe's barking. In the past, Cubbe has gotten interested in inanimate
objects that looked like critters. There was the ceramic turtle
incident, and there was the time she was going nuts over a little
plaster lawn sculpture of a baby racoon. In those instances, an effort
had been made to make the thing look real. I'm not saying they were
particularly realistic, but I could imagine doing a doubletake. At
least there was something to the size and coloring. In those cases,
Cubbe would see, bark, react, study for several minutes, realize that it
Was Not Moving, and finally walk on never to pay it the least attention
again. With this in mind, I'm trying to figure out the mystery of the
soapstone cat. It's the least realistic of Cubbe's targets in size and
stylized design, but it does have the ears, eyes and stripes of a
critter-- rather like the plaster racoon. I wonder if that's what it
takes. I wonder if I painted something of the sort big on cardboard if
that would do it. Or maybe that would be mean. Hmmm.


--Lia