HIgh on the Hog

"No autographs please!", said Petunia modestly after the final count. I shook four hundred forty eight dollars plus some foreign money out of her today. As she was born in China and likes foreign food left-overs, I pushed the euros, ringbats, and rupiah right back from whence they came.

Petunia was a rescue. When I first laid eye on her in Big Lots I knew we were made for each other.  Always cheerful, she loves her home on a shelf in my closet and does her job well, collecting all the change from pockets and purses.

Over the past year however, she'd gotten really heavy -  so heavy that I could barely lift her out of the closet!  While time consuming and disagreeable,  I decided a disgorgement was the order of the day. We steeled our resolve and braced ourselves; on the count of three, I removed her little black plug. Whew...the stuff I pulled out of there! First she was very relieved to get rid of the copper which plays  havoc with her digestion; I could almost hear her breathe a sigh of relief as I shook the last pennies out. Most satisfying for her and for me are the fifty cent pieces which emerged every so often: 56 in all. Pet is really too good for the little stuff anymore - I'm committed to keeping her on a diet of half dollars in 2011.

That said, wallets stuffed, we are going out to have a special dinner, "high on the hog" as it were, in Petunia's honor.

The ever-popular rear view