The Slice: Squirrel seems like a natural winner

Liz Cox thinks the fair needs to add something.

“I should petition for a new category in the animal judging competition – wildstock,” she wrote. “This covers the gray area between wildlife and livestock.”

So why is that needed? Read on.

“I have a backyard squirrel that can only be described as brawny. ‘Bushy tailed’ doesn’t do him justice. He charges mourning doves, intimidates deer and torments terriers. Considering the vast amount of commercial bird seed he’s consumed, my husband and I like to think we had a hand in raising him.

“He’d be a sure thing to win a blue ribbon or get reserve grand champion.

“After trapping and showing at the fair, I promise I would return him to the wild instead of being auctioned at the stockyards for Brunswick stew.”

Speaking of animals: Darleen Beedy spent a few weeks in New Jersey this summer. The humidity was stout.

But she thinks it was even harder on her dogs, who apparently prefer the Inland Northwest’s climate. “When we would go out, they would give me that ‘Do we gotta go out there?’ look.”

Speaking of dogs: “Saturday night our adopted pound puppy, a small, white, scruffy puppy, escaped from the front door of our house and into the street where he ran like a wild thing all over the neighborhood and eventually into a busy section of Evergreen,” wrote Denise Marcum.

“Neighbors took up the chase all along the route. Cars stopped to let him pass. A man in a pickup with a camper and trailer stopped. People came off the sidewalk. And we all helped corner him in a fenced area where he was, finally, trapped.

“One neighbor said we should have named the little dog ‘The Great Escaper’ instead of ‘Mini-Cooper.’

“Without all this help the little rascal would have been a greasy spot on Evergreen. We are currently concentrating on teaching him the command of ‘Stay!’ ”

Today’s Slice question: How much time do you typically spend staring at some sort of electronic screen each day?