The dogs ate my Kindle, and other stories

When I'm gone, I leave my dogs closed into the upstairs bathroom, because they hate being crated during the day, and because despite their advanced years (one-and-a-half and two) they can't seem to understand they aren't supposed to eat any toy they come across. Thus they are kept confined for their own safety, as well as my sanity. My younger daughter has the responsibility of putting them in there and making sure all doors are closed.

She's usually very good about it, but tonight she left the door open to the small toilet area, where I keep a basketful of books and magazines. We went out to dinner, and when I went up to let the dogs out I found to my horror that she'd left the door open... and to my worse horror, there lay my Kindle 2 (the smaller one) with its nice leather cover chewed to pieces. I picked it up and announced to the dogs that I would be murdering the kid (accustomed to my dramatic overstatements, they just wagged their stubby tails), then checked it over. Fortunately, although the cover was half gone, the Kindle itself was just fine. So it could have been a lot worse (my daughter is being required to pay me the thirty dollar cost of the cover to pay for her lapse in attention, which punishment she accepted meekly as reasonable justice). And in fact this unfortunate incident gives me a good excuse to go buy the Oberon cover I've been wanting:



I will of course be super careful not to let this one be consumed by canines!

Otherwise, my day was great. We hung out with my niece all day. The dogs loved her, and so did the five-year-old; they all battled for the privilege of being in her lap, which was rather amusing. Also, I hit yet another happy milestone on Amazon sales. I would like to think this is because people are becoming aware of me over there, but who really knows why my books are selling? I suppose it's enough that they are:-).