Crazy animal stories

Fletch and I are animal lovers and wanted to share these stories with you.  I don't know how to post articles on here, but I am providing you links.  They are from our local newspaper, The Gazette.  Enjoy!

Bear breaks in to Circuit City

July 15, 2008 - 11:51AM

By LANCE BENZEL

THE GAZETTE

http://www.gazette.com/articles/bear_38237___article.html/animal_whitlock.html

Daylong search yields plenty of spectacle, but no African lion

July 14, 2008 - 11:35PM

By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD

THE GAZETTE

http://www.gazette.com/articles/lion_38232___article.html/african_animal.html

My last story about animals comes from home.  Fletch loves to twirl my hair.  That became apparent, in fact, at a meeting in church a few years ago.  The leaders saw him twirling my hair during a prayer equipping class and shouted, "Now, isn't that cute?" in front of the 7-8 other couples!  One night last week, while we were watching a video, he was twirling my hair.  I started getting sleepy and started falling asleep.  When I realized I wanted to go to sleep instead of finishing the video, I told Fletch to stop twirling my hair because it was keeping me awake.  He turned around, showed both hands, and said he wasn't twirling my hair at that time. I looked behind my head to find Simba playing with my hair. :)

Now this wasn't the only time I blamed Fletch for doing something he didn't do last week.  As some of you know, we've been working out a pretty normal 6 day a week schedule at the gym.  I've been doing a lot of cardio through classes and wake up the next morning pretty sore.  One night, while feeling really sore, I noticed I was starting to feel a little better.  As the night went on, I heard cats playing in the room, but ignored it.  In fact, I caught Simba right beside my bed trying to get into some rice cakes in a bag I left on the floor.  After about 30 minutes, I started to get really hot and realized our electric mattress cover was on! I looked down onto the controls and noticed it was on all the way high! I immediately thought how sweet Fletch was to turn it on (I normally use a heating pad) to soothe my aching muscles, but told him to let me know next time before doing it. I wanted to be aware so I could shut it off before falling asleep! Again, Fletch told me he didn't do it.  Now I have had incidents in 

the past where I sleep walk (have been sleep walking ever since I was a kid) and figured I must have had a cold dream and turned it on.  Then I realize I caught Simba playing with that bag of rice cakes ... which was right on top of my controller.  

Photo taken by Sean Orear (who is also holding the toy) in June 2006 when Sean and Tahli came to visit.

My lesson learned: blame the cat before blaming the husband. :)