TOP STORIES
� Weeding Bee: cats rack
brains, plants get whacked
� Pawprint in snow could
belong to Viking cat
� Edgar pleads for a tattoo
� Edgar's Lyrical Yowls
"Don't Let the Cats Out"
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The dandelions, nettles, jasmine and other assorted blooms became compost fodder, thanks to the boys.
Edgar prevailed as champ of the competition, after correctly spelling rhubarb.
"He cheated big time," hissed Teddy, who fancied himself the best speller of the three, and who was anticipating spelling down the other two competitors to earn a trip to some exotic location for the regional competition. Teddy�s reference to the defrauding of the local competition centered on how Edgar made his response when Mom called out "rhubarb."
"Rhubarbs," she had said steadily, as Edgar nervously fidgeted on the porch step.
"R," Edgar mewed rather shakily.
Before he could spit out the second letter, however, his nerves got the best of him and he sneezed. It wasn�t the blow-the-barn-doors-off, 200 mile-per-hour kind of ACHOO! Rather it was more a polite, stifled involuntary spasmodic action. As a result, the "achoo" came out more like a muffled "Ai-chuh."
After the sneeze Edgar blushed, then completed his go at the word. His effort came out like this: "R" "Ai-chuh" "U" "B" "A" "R" "B."
Mom, hoe raised over her head over a rhubarb plant in anticipation of an error, cheered the effort and gently lowered the garden tool. The plant was spared and Edgar was declared the champion of the spelling bee.
"He totally cheated. He doesn�t know a rhubarb from a harmonica!" Teddy protested. "That wunt no 'H' he said. It was a sneeze! And that don't count!"
Edgar was humble to any post-bee questioning and simply blinked at Marlowe when pressured for the mnemonic trick. After much pondering, though, Marlowe put his paw on the ingenious memory aid.
"RHUBARB. Rascally Hamsters Undermining Baiting Attempts R Bad," he called out.
The results of the competition hang in the balance, because Teddy has filed a formal complaint. The official ruling is expected in several months, because due process creeps at a snail�s pace.
But Mom said it doesn�t much matter if the contest was ruled invalid because the plants have been yanked out of the ground, stuffed into bags and dumped into a trash bin.
However, Edgar hopes the spelling bee standings will not be overturned, as he has grown rather fond of his blue ribbon, which now hangs on the wall by the cardboard box where he sleeps.
