Pet pictures surrounding talk of death....

Just another weekend out of the office. Yesterday morning, Pepper decided to pick a fight with a polar bear.

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This was about a week after catching her growling at a lawn ornament of Rudolph-



- but maybe she mistook him for that OTHER Rudolph who's much more scary:



(Roodles and his crazies continue to soldier on against all odds. Saw this tweet this morning which plays on former President Trump's appearance in a really bad sequel, and emphasizes how good it is that we won't be subjected to a sequel of HIM:



At this rate, Joe Pesci is going to wind up on the legal team; Roodles is already quoting My Cousin Vinny in open court, so all he needs is to find Two More Yutes to overturn the election results.)

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After that walk, I went on errands, and passed this in the parking lot next to the library:



"Cars you never want to see being used by your Uber driver" for 800, Alex....

Sadly, that sight continued a theme of the week, for we had an active crime scene at the far end of our street several days earlier. We'd both noticed a bunch of cop cars heading back there, including a police pickup truck, which I'd never seen around.  Apparently, what it may have been picking up after was this:

Amherst police have identified the man who died earlier this week after being found in the middle of a residential street.

Charles A. Elardo, 29, of Amherst, was found at about 3 a.m. Sunday in the area of ... a street south of Sheridan Drive near the I-290, police said Thursday.

Elardo was found with what police only have described as "serious injuries." He was taken by ambulance to Erie County Medical Center where he died, police said.

Police have not provided any information about the nature of his injuries or any other circumstances surrounding the incident.

The manner of Elardo's death has been classified as undetermined, Assistant Police Chief Charles Cohen said in an email.

Officers were called to the area west of North Forest Road to check the welfare of a man in the roadway, police said.

We were joined on walkies this morning by a friend of the group who had heard about the incident. She teaches at a local school and had to sub for the deceased's best friend, who took several days off this week on account of it.  She also asked us if we'd lost water pressure during the week; apparently that would have been the result of the fire hydrants down there being used to help clean up. What she hadn't heard was what may have led up to the incident: our street is about as dead-endy as you get, and you're not back here unless either you know someone or you're lost.  With kids that age (and that would be almost exactly OUR kid's age), you tend to suspect one if not both of the two Big D's- drugs and depression- but there's nothing yet to suggest either, and we may never know.

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You probably could use some soothing after that, so have a cute animal or two-



- or why not three?



That dog is so tolerant of them using her as a piece of furniture.  We're still working through the issues from their vet visit the other day. Boz- the orange and definitely smaller one- did not eat much at all yesterday, but that may have been the aftereffect of the vaccine Thursday morning. He did much better with his noms today and is getting more used to the routine of being fed apart from his brudda.  Eleanor measured them last night, and Zini is a good two inches longer from base of neck to tip of tail. But they both hold their own during playfights, are getting along well with Zoey, and are annoying Evil Cat to death. These are all good things.

Less good is that we're having to be really vigilant about keeping closets closed, because we've found pee in several of them.  Hopefully they'll be able to work off more energy, and have less incentive to go on adventures in corners, once Eleanor finishes a cat-tree thingy she's been building from them. This project has been on for close to a month, and the cost has probably gone past what a store-bought one would have been after various extra trips for paint, primer, epoxy, bits and bobs- but it will outlast any store product, and probably the kittens as well as us.

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Tomorrow finishes the automotive work. I'll just have to remind them to use brake and not embalming fluid;)