Well, better late than never – even on Ryder reports. My apologies, but time just slipped away.

Anyway, things started quietly – too quietly!! There was a time of absolute silence. Were the felines worried about their nine lives? Were the canines in fear of another loss? Whatever the cause, it was QUIET. Then we discovered the problem. The Bow-Wow Café was closed (due to unsanitary conditions according to golfnlady) and the critters were hungry. Fortunately, Anna’s Kitchen opened up and served puppytails and canine sweetbreads. Steak and kitney dumplings were eaten quickly. Someone threw some catribs on the barbie. To make it more festive, Joel served cat-a-ritas to those who chose to imbibe. So, between the food, the alcohol and the kitty throw rug booth, all were happy.

Subs were used as soon as they walked in the door. Canadagrl did triple duty, jumping in as needed each and every round. Uncle_Den was called into service even though he was just "visiting."

Round One was finally fully paired and play began. (It really does help if you arrive at least 30 minutes before tourney time if you need a partner and 15 minutes before to sign up a pair.) It ended with the score tied 7-7.

While waiting for Round Two to begin, the sensuous tomcat gave a discourse on being sensuous rather than sensual (a person is sensuous, a thing is sensual) in between licking himself. This caused someone to begin telling the story of two felines watching a dog lick himself. The one cat said to the other, "Don’t you wish you could do that?" The other cat replied, "Yes, but I’m afraid he would bite me."

Round Two was pretty uneventful other than the yipping, yapping, howling and hissing. Three dog teams reported slams – joel/bichon-6N; sugrrr/stgrrr-6S; loraine/jicky-6H. The cats did manage one slam – theholyguy/suzy-6S. After a bit of nailbiting by both sides, the score ended in another tie and was now 14-14.

I did notice that tips were being given on how to meet lonely women while pairing for Round Three. For those interested, become a marriage counselor. Probably works as well as the next idea. Canadagrl got scared waiting because of the threats being made by the waiting creatures and something about "snipping tails", etc.

The cats came back with two slams this round: aimejoue/smilodonkiwi-6H; scorpiokirsten/gane-6C. And then the serious nailbiting began. The dogs were ahead; no the score was tied. The cats gained the lead. The dogs came back. Back to a tie. Finally, it was down to the last table, last hand. If the dogs won, it would be a tie. If the cats won, another win. The dogs had the bid. If they make it, the dogs have it. Talk about pressure and kibitzers! Finally, the results are in. The cats won! Final score: 30-26 cats.

By my reckoning, the cats actually have one more life to lose if we go by squeakers. We shall see.

DOG TEAMS: seaweed4-48653/rebos-dog; dpdoggie/cath-atinhg-dog; cutedoggie/baddoggie; bichon-puppy/joelf48; squirrelldog/posey-pup; psspill/tuffypar; sgrrrrr/stgrrrr; geofspa/snoetke-dk; glossit/suegloss; lorainew/jickythejinx; mean-oledog/betterduck123; xBrorsen/Jean; the-bigdog-uk/tis22; larrrry-c/huggy-bay

CAT TEAMS: scorpiokirsten/gane32000; aimejuoue/smilodonkiwi; bert-kitty/erinietomcat; squirrelldog/posey-pup; roblyn2000/melkor-vala; AlanMitchell/lynh-uk-2000; golfnlady-sc99/harlequijn-smiles; producer37/wombiepie; pladeus1/suzic-51; the-sensuous-tomcat/incognito-uk; ron-maxey/sugarmt/canadagrl; gaunicz/a-puppygrrrl; jccrayk/barbara1424/softfire; judmom/Imtigger2002

UNDEFEATED TEAMS: jccrayk/barbara/softfire/moysian; roblyn/melkor_vala; sugarmt/canadagr/ron-maxey WELL DONE!!!

REMARKABLE, WONDERFUL SUBS: uncle-den; softfire; barbara; canadagrl; moysian; jimkat; rueful-rabbit; gaunicz I thank you one and all and for those I missed, my apologies but my heartfelt thanks are still going out to you.