The Slice: Glimpsing the first snowfall

When Janet Culbertson gets up and sees the result of the first overnight snowfall of the season, she thinks about her father.

“My dearly departed Dad used to wake me up for school by saying, ‘Have a look outside’ at the first snowfall.

“Good memories. Sure do miss him.”

Faces carved on Mount Spokane: Grace Nelson nominated John Stockton and Dorothy Powers.

Rich Clift suggested a marmot should be one of the four.

Slice answer: Beth Scott wrote, “If Calvin Trillin were to return to Spokane, I would definitely taken him to Ruins – eclectic and charming setting with unusual, creative and delicious food, plus their famous cocktails and GREAT waitstaff.”

Kitchen action your pets respond to: “Every time I cook popcorn on the stove the dogs run over at the first pop and I get into trouble with my daughter,” wrote Keith Hegg. “She keeps telling me not to give them any popcorn because it encourages them to beg. The dogs give me away every time.”

Loris Michael said the sound of chopping is what brings her pooch running. “She loves celery, carrots, cabbage, apples, pears, lettuce, etc.”

Mary Martin’s young Sheltie is nuts about the scent of her hand lotion. “Riley can be in the other end of the house but when I open that bottle and apply a bit of vanilla-smelling cream, he’s at my side in a flash.”

Craig Heimbigner said the electric can opener is a magnet for their cat, Gus. OK, that’s not unusual. But check this out.

“Once that sound happens he is in the kitchen screaming for the tuna juice. He won’t eat tuna, just loves the water drained off it.”

Animal brainpower: “In a recent column, you threw out a question, does a squirrel remember where it buried its store of nuts?” wrote Lois Hughes.

Well, she heard a story on the “Bird Note” feature airing on Spokane Public Radio. It described how cold-climate birds add brain cells to their hippocampus to help them remember where to retrieve scattered hordes of food.

“The more severe the climate, the bigger that area of the brain becomes. I would guess squirrels have a similar mechanism. Spokane squirrels might even be brainier than their relatives in Portland and Seattle.”

Today’s Slice question: What’s the happiest you have been?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. When Tim Groh sees the first overnight snowfall, his thought is “Did I drain the underground sprinkler system?”