Another pretty "normal" late March day - kinda sunny, kinda windy, and kinda too cool to melt much.  We think we've detected a bit of a list to the block as it sits on the ice, but perhaps not.  Hard to tell.  We've had a few snowflakes in the air off and on during the day, and tonight we are likely to get more - perhaps enough to measure.  We'll see.  In the meantime, the wind is making it seem colder than the 35 degrees I'm seeing on my thermometer; not a good idea to put away the winter jackets quite yet. 

Henretta and her new companion, "Oreo," came to pick up Ice-Out tickets this afternoon.  We hadn't met Oreo, but we'd heard a lot about her.  She is a cutie, for sure.  She was surprised to be met at the door by Woody, our cat.  Henretta said she suspects Oreo had never seen a cat before.  Woody was about the same size, or maybe a little larger than Oreo, but that didn't dampen the little dog's enthusiasm.  Oreo very much wanted to play and did a jumping-jack yipping routine, but Woody, being very much the elderly gentleman at this stage, sat back and contemplated the bouncing dog with interest, but wasn't about to engage.  Woody is used to much bigger dogs and seemed a little confused about the animal that smelled like a dog, but that probably looked more like a cat to him.  However, he apparently knew it wasn't a cat, for he was comfortable having Oreo in the house, and he definitely would not have accepted a cat coming into his house.

We were interested that Oreo liked chasing the little red dot that we got as a toy to entertain Woody.  But for her it only lasted a few moments befpre she had figured out what she was chasing was really in Fred's hand.  

Woody hasn't figured that out yet - and probably won't.  However, after being unable to catch or feel the red dot he's been chasing for a while, he's smart enough apparently to realize it's a lost cause, so he simply lies down and ignores it.  It still captures his attention for short periods of time, but I think he has a short memory span, and also attention deficit.  It isn't like chasing a mouse or squirrel, for sure, and it's hard to teach an old cat new tricks.