By: Dee

It seems most felines and hounds were well sated from Thanksgiving – so much so that it was suggested that today the hippos play the elephants. Fortunately, sanity prevailed and the cats and dogs clawed and bit their way through another Ryder.

A nice kitten (Harlequin_Smiles) came in early and asked for a saber toothed tiger partner. Fortunately, he did find one in overtroubledwaters. We ended up with a plethora of curs (Cute Unbowed Ruffians). The Glossits graciously offered to play as felines. Then, a true first occurred – xBrorsen sans a partner said he would play as a cat and stgiles was called into action as his partner! However, this may not have been such an act of kindness as you shall see.

Gray_Wolf specifically asked to play against Wayne and the Avengers, but this was not to be since Incognito could only be a sub due to familial needs. Sugarmt came in and announced that the cats would regain their position as winners, at which point she was immediately pounced upon by Gray. Fortunately, no damage was done to either party.

Barbara put her harem on the auction block since she would no longer need them. She wanted a minimum bid of US $1,000. Sadly, the best offer she got was 11.5 cents Canadian (after bids of 4 cents, 5 cents, and 7.5 cents). The reason for the sale was that our princess had rejoined the ranks of the working world! Congrats on the job and hope it all goes well.

Before Round One began, the cats were accused of bringing in a bitch in heat to distract the dogs during play. The warning seemed to pay off since the dogs came out howling and growling with an ultimate lead of 8 to 4.

Gray_Wolf continued his "duty" of distracting the cats by putting catnip in their litter boxes. He sharpened his fangs while they did this (wonder if this was a hint to all curs to do the same).

Round Two quickly began with more howling and growling and some mewling and whimpering. Could the cats be going down to their second defeat? They did get closer in tying the round, but the ultimate score was 14-10 dogs.

There had been complaints made earlier by Incognito about The Big Dog gloating over the dogs having won the week before. After being denied doggy treats for this week, he did seem somewhat more subdued with just an occasional bark. (Celebrations are okay, but gloating …. ) In the meantime, accusations were made that xBrorsen was deliberately throwing his game so the dogs would win. This did get a laugh from the goat dog.

Round Three began and ended in record time. The entire Ryder took 2.5 hours even thought it started 5 minutes late because of trying to get more cat teams together. Just as the last tables were finishing up, our beloved and missing Moose appeared. Believe it or not, he was working, not carousing and not in jail with socks being dried on his antlers as was suppositioned! Round Three ended in a royal rout: 30-18 dogs.

Not a single slam was made that I noticed. So, if you made a slam and I missed it or you forgot to mention it, please email Dave ([email protected]) and let him know. Thank you.

Dog Teams: kibblesnbits-milkbones2/mr-phydeaux/dpdoggie007; rsquirrell/gray-wolf1961; the-smalldog-singapore/the-bigdog-uk; meanole-dog/kirakins; jean1998-1999/softfire-1; baddoggieinthedoghouse/cutedoggie; pretchiouspup/karenmmk; rebos2day/barbara1424-99; kgibsonlabs/ammck63; jickythejinx/joelf48; drannalee/woo7nt; delta-gayl/aseriousjoker

Cat Teams: scorpiokirsten/gane32000; gaunicz/boowho; sugarmt2000/gtmonty1; rae-jean/j-lunruh; melkor-vala/roblyn; borderline/kippers68; one-spade-cat/one-spade-kitten; aimejoue/smilodonkiwi; harlequin-smiles/overtroubledwaters; glossit/suegloss; ernietomcat/incognito-uk; stgilles/xBrorsen

Phenomenal Subs: Incognito_UK; LORAINEW; J-Lunruh; DPMan (in his role as DPMan and DPDoggie). Others showed up later and, sadly, I did my usual poor job of writing down who they were. No matter what, you are all appreciated and needed. Thank you for your help and willingness to just "hang" until needed.

Newcomers and Possible Newcomers: kibblesnbits-milkbones2 and mr-phydeaux (great names and glad someone got you into the spirit before you arrived); karenmmk; gtmonty1 (nothing like dragging your husband into the thick of things Sugar!); ammck63 Welcome and hope we see you all again and again and again.

Undefeated Teams: baddoggieinthedoghouse/cutedoggie; delta-gayl/aseriousjoker; rae-jean/j-lunruh/judsmom WELL DONE!!!