The Slice: Fearless deer-stalking dog may need a tug on the reins

Here’s the long and the short of it.

“I live in an area with a large deer population just south of St. Maries, Idaho,” wrote Jim Shubert. “I have a problem with my dog chasing deer and I don’t know how to break her of the habit. I guess my major concern is I don’t know what Gracie the Chihuahua would do with the deer after she caught it. Do you have any words of advice?”

Sounds like Gracie needs a helmet or a rifle. Maybe both.

Just make sure she knows the difference between deer and reindeer.

A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE: “My daughter, Courtney, was somewhat reluctant to wrap any gifts too far in advance of Christmas, for fear her 4-year-old son, Tyler, would be curious and open them,” wrote Sue Jones of Hayden. “She decided he was old enough to understand ‘hands off,’ and wrapped a few. As she placed them under the tree she told him not to unwrap any of them. A bit later she came back into the room, and there he sat, beside the tree, a gift next to him with the end of the wrapped package open.”

The flabbergasted mother reminded her son that she had told him not to unwrap any of his presents.

Tyler had an explanation. “I didn’t unwrap it, Mommy,” he said. “I was just looking at the Legos inside.”

SLIGHTLY SLIGHTED: “I grew up right here in Mullan, Idaho,” wrote Art Anderson. “Mullan is nestled deep in a close valley with mountains all around. Radio reception was poor at best, even from the nearest radio station which was only about 10 miles away.

“When I could get it, I remember, as a young lad, listening to the news. When the announcer finished, he’d say ‘The preceding was brought to you over the leased wire of the Associated Press.’

“I interpreted what I heard as ‘…over the least wire.’

“I wondered why we weren’t entitled to get the news over the ‘greater’ wire. Just because we were this little bitty town, and there weren’t many of us, why should that make us second class?

“It took me quite a while to figure it all out.”

TODAY’S SLICE QUESTION: What snack do you plan to leave out for Santa tonight?