The mystery of the 4th bone.

In the time that Miz Biz has been living with me, I have purchased her three pressed rawhide bones from the PCC:

1. A bone chewed to a nub by Miz Biz, which I then spirited away to the trash because I was afraid she might choke on it when I left the house.
2. A bone devoured in its entirety by Miz Biz.
3. A new bone that is still fully intact because, for whatever reason, Miz Biz doesn't seem to like it as well as the others.

At no time have I purchased Miz Biz a fourth bone.

Late last week, I noticed that Miz Biz was rooting around in the pile of pillows and afghans at the end of the couch. Shortly, she emerged with a full rawhide bone, already chewed into two large pieces.

Lo, the fourth bone!

Where did the fourth bone come from? Was the fourth bone one of Miz Bailey's old bones? Had she hidden it in a pillowcase?

Well, yes and no.

On Halloween 2003, I bought a rawhide bone to sit on my dresser on top of the box containing Miz Bailey's ashes, as a kind of offering to the dead. That bone is no longer on the box. From this I infer that on Tuesday or Wednesday evening when she was shut in the bedroom, Miz Biz used one of the open dresser drawers as a bridge from the bed to the dresser and absconded with Miz Bailey's posthumous bone. She then chewed the bone during the day on Wednesday and/or Thursday, hiding it among the pillows when I arrived home.

I must now reconcile myself to the fact that I'm living with a creature who not only seizes every possible opportunity to roll in seagull poop, but would also stoop so low as to steal from the dead and then lie about it.

Good thing she's cute.