The Slice: A case of K-9 identity theft

North Idaho’s Jim Markley owns a golden retriever named Sadie.

She has been known to slip out of her collar.

Well, the other night Markley got a call at home. “I found your dog,” a voice said.

Markley insisted there had to be a mistake because Sadie was right there with him.

Eventually they figured out that some genius had found one of Sadie’s old collars and put it on another dog, which now apparently was lost.

Too bad the collar-recycler hadn’t thought to replace the I.D. tag.

“Favorite career memento: Emylee Tolliver’s is a scar.

The animal control officer was bitten on the face by a bull mastiff. She had to get six stitches across the bridge of her nose.

“Every morning when I look in the mirror while getting ready for work, the scar that remains is a reminder that my job can be dangerous at times and I need to be careful today,” wrote Tolliver. “It is also a visible reminder of the care and concern that my co-workers showed me that day.”

Mark Slater’s triggers a different sort of memory.

“My first real job was at the Sea Galley across from the old Coliseum in 1978,” he wrote. “I have the original menu from that restaurant.”

A pound of crab, a baked potato and salad bar went for $4.99. All sandwiches (including salad bar) were $2.99.

“I also have a copy of my paycheck from those days — a whopping $89 and change for two weeks.”

“Confusion at first sight: Last week marked the anniversary of a 1955 blind date engineered by mutual friends of a single mother of three and a divorced father of two.

When the gentleman stepped up to the front porch of his date’s modest Spokane bungalow, he heard piano notes wafting through the summer air. Looking through the screen door, he saw her at the piano.

He knocked. She got up and crossed the room.

Then he uttered the words that would live on in family lore and more than 50 years of happy marriage.

“Hi, I’m Martha,” he said. “You must be John.”

“Reactions to the new addition: John May’s sister, Greta, was 3 when the birth of another child prompted her to be farmed out to the grandparents for a few days. “They got a new baby,” she told her grandmother. “They don’t need me anymore.”

And when he was 6, Lisa Nunlist’s husband, Steve, was disappointed that his family’s new baby was a girl. So, when no one was looking, he scooped up the infant and headed for the neighbor’s house. He planned to swap his sister for a baby boy that other family had recently welcomed home.

Alas, his plan was foiled. But his folks got him a male dog, which seemed to satisfy him.

“Today’s Slice question: What Inland Northwest cemetery has the most serene setting?