Basho is fierce. Sometimes Basho is a little bit scary. I trust him. I trust him with his life and my life and Frankie�s life and Peaches�s life. He can sometimes be a bully. He always tells the truth. Last night on our walk he killed a raccoon. I got scared. Basho, who has been my companion since he was a small babe, is a different creature from me. Yeah, you all knew that but it came as a shock to me. He is fearless and brave and definitely not torn in two by the moral ambiguities of the world. Which is to say, he knows right from wrong, friend from foe and he�s not afraid to do something about it. I sat away away from him and Frankie (who, truth be told, was basically Basho�s cheerleader) while they tore this creature limb from limb. What was I supposed to do? I couldn�t get in there and break it up without risking serious injury to all and sundry and probably rabies to me. It was horrible. I knew afterward that Basho was tremendously proud of himself and that if I were a dog I would give him serious props but I am a scaredy cat human who does not like to witness violence and death and so all I could say was DROP IT when he tried to bring that dead raccoon over to me. The dead raccoon was bigger than Frankie.

Later on as we lay on the couch all together I pulled several raccoon nails out of Basho�s skin and discovered a big bump over his right eye, but otherwise he is pretty much without a mark. Thank you jesus. Well, thank you Basho.

Turns out my ranting rant on dogs and people who suck was a bit misplaced. Issa, the bigger and maler of the two newcomers, who we actually just call Brother (and the littler and femaler of the two we call Sister) broke out of the house while I was at work on Saturday and went on home. We drove around Sunday morning looking for him, hoping he�d lead us to Sister�s home and we found him. His name is Bandit, actually, and he lives about a mile away but the folks he lives with don�t know Sister. They said they�d seen her hanging around their yard and I guess she was in heat and since Bandit ain�t fixed, off the two of em went together. To have lots and lots of sex. They did give us a lead on who might own Sister but the folks weren�t home and I haven�t gone back to check. I need to, asap, because she�s driving me a little bit batty (even though she is pure sweetness). I�ll try again tonight, perhaps. I am very glad to find their rightful homes�especially Bandit because that dog was way too cool to not keep and we couldn�t keep him so I�m glad we can�t keep him for moral reasons, you know. Like we would be bad people if we had kept him. Uh, yeah. I don�t know what I�m talking about.

Also, since I�m not sleepy or caffeine-deprived anymore, I wanted to say how dang silly I am about the hurt feelings from Saturday morning. I snore sometimes and Jeff, who worked 12-15 hour days all last week (and this is hard work, too�not like sitting here at this stupid desk), was pretty much beyond exhausted and had to get up at 5 am to put in another 15 hour day and it was about 4:30 am and I was snoring and keeping him up. So he said, Molly. You�re snoring. And then I said, oh sorry. And then! Then, my friends, then he made his fatal error. He said: watch it. Watch it? Hoo baby. I crossed the line, y�all. That�s it. It was a throw down. Jeff was mortified after he realized what he�d said and I was mortified for being so wacko to think for even a moment that he meant something other than, I�m very very tired and you�re snoring so turn over so that I can sleep. These days I like to call him up in Maryland to say: You want to come home? Watch it.

Right then. I�m off to catalog and listen to the radio. Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I admit I like how she says Fresh Air! at the beginning of that show. Plus it�s been pretty good lately. I liked the two days of tributes to Spalding Gray and the interview with Richard Clarke and the Neil Young interview (the second part of which is today!). Public radio has been going rapidly downhill lately (they got rid of Bob Edwards from Morning edition! They fired Sandra Tsing Loh!) except for a couple of shows, I think. Too bad. I wish there were more alternatives. Fucking clear channel punks ruling the airwaves. Fucking decency policing FCC.

But that, my friends, is a misplaced rant for another day. Bye!