Today is dog-ma's birthday. Woof! Happy birthday!

Jack corgi, Anisonya Siamese, and I had been planning all week to surprise dog-ma with a birthday cake. Last night we waited till after dog-ma went to bed. Anisonya, passionate young artist that she is, insisted we do a Neo-Synthesist interpretation of a cake. Jack and I just wanted to get something made without waking up dog-ma. Oy. The best laid plans of dogs and cats . . .

Anisonya had it in her head to use raw liver to symbolize a longevity wish for dog-ma's birthday. Ani's a deep thinker, you know, and she's into Neo-Synthesism. So when Ani told us that the cake piece should be called "Long Liver," we thought we kind of knew where she was coming from.

What we didn't know was where the raw liver was coming from. That is, not until Ani dragged long pieces of it around the kitchen. Oh howl, she'd saved the liver pieces from her dinner treat. One by one, she dragged them out of her bowl and carried them across the kitchen as if she were doing a performance piece. There are still little red splotches everywhere she pawsed with the dripping pieces.

Ani's animated performance had an unintended effect upon Jack corgi. He started following Ani back and forth to try to snag some liver. Then he started woofing at her like he always does when he wants to play. I quickly muzzled him with my mouth and reminded him that we didn't want to wake dog-ma. I thought I had things under control.

I didn't realize that none of us can resist raw liver. Before I could say woof, we were all pulling at the pieces until they actually became long liver. . . .

What are we going to use now for a cake? I don't know. Maybe we can hold dog-ma's candles in our front paws as we howl happy birthday.