The Slice No Whining And Dining Allowed

While visiting another city, we saw a simple message on the door of a restaurant that Spokane ought to consider adopting as a slogan.

“No crybabies.”

Pets’ collections, Part 1: “Our dog Willie has been collecting ends of 2-by-4s, a pound of penny-weight nails and a hammer,” wrote Barbara Eickholdt. “We believe he is building a ladder to escape the back yard.”

“Our 12-year-old kitty, Hyper, likes the rubber bands that come around The Spokesman-Review,” wrote Leslie Vanhoff. “She chews them for awhile and then saves them in her food dish. She also likes plastic drinking straws, but only if they are still in their paper wrapper.”

Lori Webster’s Labrador retriever collects stuffed animals. “We have to place them on the window ledge in front of the house so the neighbors can drive by and see if any of the missing-in-action toys are theirs.”

Then there was this, from Marty and Janet Davis. “We had a cat named Thom that was big, fat and so gentle he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Unlike his sister, Gerry, who would bring us the typical cat offerings (dead mice, birds, etc.), Thom collected sponges. He would steal (hunt) them anywhere he could find them. He’d bring home all shapes and sizes, even out of the back of a wallpaper-hanger’s truck.

“The best score Thom made was the day he proudly came home and presented us with a rabbit. He had stolen the rabbit-shaped sponge from the wading pool in a neighbor’s back yard.

“We loved Thom and always loved telling that story. He was buried with that rabbit, his favorite sponge.”

Life in Spokane, Part 1: After we asked readers what had been stolen from their yards, we heard about pilfered poppy plants, a swiped American flag, ripped-off rose bushes, a purloined cow skull, lifted baskets of flowers, filched 8-foot figures of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, stolen rocks, a snatched rhododendron and more.

Life in Spokane, Part 2: Spokane’s Margaret Coffey was buying a used appliance from a young couple when she dropped $40 under a desk without knowing it. Because of that, she found that she was short of having the purchase price. So she made a quick run to a bank machine. “As I walked back into the house with more money, the young man handed me the $40, telling me it had fallen under the desk, out of sight,” wrote Coffey. “I was pretty amazed at this honesty…I also think that the couple’s 2-year-old son is a lucky boy to have role models like his parents.”

Today’s Slice question: Who is the Inland Northwest’s best dancer?

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

MEMO: The Slice appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. One reason Spokane’s David and Justin Burnett don’t eat a certain snack food is that, after conducting experiments, they have concluded that “Twinkies do not burn.”