By: Dee

Another Saturday, another Ryder with dogs howling, cats purring, humans cavorting and other critters doing what they felt was appropriate. Another day of wonderful food being catered by the Bow Wow Café. Thank you, Micki, for all of your hard work in creating the menu and feeding all of the critters!

BlackTransparentBikini was in great form and chortling to everyone about her theft and sale of Sugrrrrrrr’s harem last week. Sugrrr, however, did not seem too upset, stating to one and all that she was busily collecting a new posse for her harem, as well as rounding up any and all strays from her former harem. Wonder if she will succeed. I suppose only time will tell!

Poor TreeRat, oops, I mean Squirrel_Dog, was constantly being chased up a tree by a couple of Kool_Kats.

There were some brilliant name changes made during this tourney – Catherine became Cath_ating_Dog; StGiles become StGrrrrr, DPMan007 became DPDoggie007 (I suppose we can safely assume that a wink and a smile has cause this feline to undergo the tortuous medical procedures required to become a canine. Ah, what a man will do!!)

During all of this frivolity, madam director was kept hopping with signing up all the teams – a grand total of 20! First, we had a plethora of dog teams and then the cats casually sauntered in. (Folks, you’d help tremendously if you got here a little earlier.)

I can’t be sure, but there seemed to be an undercurrent of trepidation by the canines – have they been defeated once too often. Finally, all were put into their seats with Incognito_UK/Dittny and Suzy/TheHolyGuy having to put on doggie masks. Ah, the shame of it all! On top of this, our ferocious rabbitdog, aka Rueful_Rabbit, was called upon to play as a feline at the last second! Jimkat was also called into service to play as a dog, but, to me, there is something appropriate about a Jimkat being a feline, so no guilt was felt by this director for this odious assignment.

Round 1 immediately began with a cry of 6H being made by newcomers Kool_Kats1 and 2. Fortunately for me, our beloved Moose came and literally saved this witch from total insanity! As I worked on pairings and the like, he resolutely stood by and kept track of who won and ever so ably kept score. Round 1 ended with the score being nice and even – 10-10.

Ah, the dogs had hope! The cats were a chastened! Big Dog could be heard leading his charges to what he hoped would be victory. The cats who were jumping for joy at seeing SmiloDonKiwi back in the fray and were quietly growling their own threats for Round 2.

Round 2 had slams left, right, up, down and inside out, too. JickytheJinx/ KGibsonLab (6S) and Kenny_HA2/Softfire (6SX) announced slams for the dogs. Sammy_Girl_2U/Whodde2001 (6S), CanadaGirl/Hurricanenwo (6D) and Rueful_Rabbit/Guy_Illinois_40ish (6S) all made cat slams. As requests for scores came in, the best I could do was refer them to the drunken Moose, who was doing a much better job than I at keeping track of wins, losses and slams. (Somehow, somewhere between yesterday and today, a slam disappeared. Hopefully, the missed pair is of a forgiving nature and understand that I would never deliberately deprive any team of their well-deserved slam trophy. So sorry!) Round 2 ended 12-8 for the cats for a total score of 22-18. Of course, I would never have known this score had the Moose not kept informing me of who had won what.

As I was pairing up Round 3, there seemed to be a rather interesting discussion going on with the Moose. Aside from his bellowing of drunken ditties, MryKath offered to meet the Moose under a tree and drink with him. In an effort to either disguise themselves or, perhaps, to begin this drinking binge half-bagged, they agreed to meet wearing paper bags over their heads – most interesting and provocative.

Round 3 continued the slam count. At one table, slams of 6H were reported by each side (Rueful_Rabbit/Guy_Illinois v. Puppyfinn/LoraineW). Other slams were bid and made by Incognito_UK/Dittny (6S) and Sugrrrrr/Stgrrrrr bid and made 6H AND 6HX. Way to go one and all! At the end of Round 3, the cats had again clawed, crawled, battered and beaten the dogs to a score of 26-14. The final score was 48-32 felines. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you, Moose. I truly could not have done this without you!! A huge hug and an even bigger drink await you when you are next seen by me.

Now, before there are cries of foul and lack of trying by the cat/curs, please note that cat teams disguised as dogs each won a game in either Round 2 and 3, so a true effort was made to win by these loyal cats. Dpman has obviously changed sides and is now DPDoggie! It was obvious that Rueful_Rabbit did his best as a cat having bid and made a slam and also winning one his rounds. Jimkat also played valiantly in his half of a cat/dog team, winning two rounds. Kudos for playing honorably and wholeheartedly for the "wrong" side!

Cat Teams: kool_kat_1/kook_kat_2; rae_jean00/judmom1; slam1931/jr_aces_4u; PennyRVr/generyder; golfnlady/Melkor_Vala; ron_maxey/sugarmt; sammy_girl_2u/whodde2001; vikingtore/aimejoue; whitebear3/little_ladybug_2000; epicox/gaunicz; the_sensuous_tomcat/chattycat_hy; borderline/TIS; kippers/pom_two; bert_kitty/ernietomcat; scorpiokirsten/silver_wind77caca; Maryyvonne/ccwaxman; canadagirl/hurricanenwo; smilodonkiwi/jimkat; rueful_rabbit/guy_Illinois; cat_o_ninetails/overtroubledwaters

Dog Teams: puppyfinn/Lorainew; stgrrrr/sugrrrrr; geofspa/bichon_puppy; xBrorsen/Jean1998; suegloss/glossit; jickythejinx/kgibsonlab; keychild/squirreldog; Jonnie26/steven_h_d; rebos_dog/blacktransparentbikini; cath_ating_doggie/dpdoggie007; clear_blue_98/bruce; betterduck/mean_ole_dog; mrykath/feldenpuppy; stgsusan/nozomikin; softfire/Kenny_Ha2; suzy/theholyguy; ditny/incognito_uk; woo7nt/drannalee; vissatira/amekat; silkenpuppy/l_tall_sallie

Subs were called into play almost as soon as they announced they were there and available. These included: KgibsonLab, KeneBaby (replacing Cat_O_9Tails), Imp_Promptu (replacing KeneBaby), Jimkat (who was replaced by Rainlan), Rainlan (who was replaced by Snoetke), Snoetke, Hbear and a few others whose names I never caught, but quickly jumped in where needed. Thank you one and all. This is definitely one Ryder that would not have been able to go on without you.

There were many new players, some long-lost players returning and some who may or may not have been new (who knows with name changes and team spirit and the like). These included Kool_Kats1 and 2; JudMom1; PennyRVr, GeneRyder; Sammy_Girl_2U, Whodde2001, VikingTore, Whitebear3, The_Sensuous_Tomcat, ChattyCat_HY, TIS (welcome back!), Kippers (ditto), MaryYvonne, CCWaxman (haven’t seen you in a bit, either), Hurricanenwo (new or returning, who knows, but definitely welcome), SmiloDonKiwi (hope this means seeing much more of you), Guy_Illinois_40ish, MEB (who left very quickly – hope we didn’t scare MEB away), Steven_H_D, StgSusan, Nozomikin, Softfire (you have been missed!), Vissatira, L_Tall_Sallie. May those of you who are new come back soon and often. May those of you who have returned stay and not leave us again for so long!

Slams were bid and made by: Kool_Kats1 & 2; JickytheJinx/KGibsonLabs; Softfire/Kenny_HA2; Sammy_Girl_2U/Whodde2001; CanadaGirl/Hurricanenwo; Rueful_Rabbit/Guy_Illinois; Sugrrrr/Stgrrr (two trophies for this pair!); Dittny/Incognito_UK, and, of course, my missing pair (with my apologies).

Ah, what a day it was! Undefeated teams were: GolfnLady/Melkor_Vala; Stgrrr/Sugrrr; Sammy_Girl_2U/Whodde; Clear_Blue/Bruce; CanadaGirl/Hurricane. Strut with pride for your hard-earned wins!!