Hey, I wrote about "So You Think You Can Dance" last night. You should watch this show.

The small trend I'm noticing lately is people who think they're teaching animals a lesson but in fact are doing no such thing.

First, the big story in the local dog community was that a woman here thought her puppy was stolen from a dog beach but it was recently given back to her and it's assumed now that she just lost it, and in fact it wasn't stolen. I'm glad the story has a happy ending but this part makes no sense to me: "In the meantime [the owner] says she plans to ground Che for a week and not let him out of her sight. But she also said she would buy him a toy and some peanut butter, his favorite treat. "

Well, first of all, technically the owner should be grounded since she lost the dog. But a puppy wouldn't learn a lesson of any kind if you keep it at home and give it lots of love and attention and peanut butter and toys. Frankly I wouldn't mind staying at home getting lots of love and attention and peanut butter and toys.

Second, so my in-laws now have 11 cats WHICH I AM NOT JUDGING IN ANY WAY. But in addition to these 11 cats they also regularly feed and pay attention to various outdoor cats. I kind of think that these outdoor cats are also basically their cats, since they have named the cats and feed them regularly and so on. But since the indoor cat total has now reached the double-digits, my mom-in-law has decided to bring the hammer down, like, for real. As she noted in an email, "We cannot take in any more, so will have to use tough love on the outside cats--leaving them to the outside world, but feed them as they show up. "

Here again is where I don't think the animal is going to get the picture. An outdoor cat is not going to think "Hmm. ALL these people are doing is feeding me when I show up, regularly and reliably. Yet...I sense a growing distance. Is it possible that while sustaining me on a regular basis, these people aren't giving me all the love and devotion that I, a cat, require? This is so embarrassing. I think I'll just save my dignity and go find food somewhere else so I don't look desperate."

These people should just quietly give up, like my parents. Why try to train your animal not to sleep on the couch when you can just put a sheet on the couch forever and be done with it?