June 08, 2000 So it's about two weeks before Halloween and Joanne and I are in the local drug store, picking up some candy. On the way out, we pass a stuffed cat with a sticker on it's paw that says "Squeeze me here!" When I squeeze, a speaker inside the cat lets out a low, mournful meow; a Halloween-cat meow; a you-squeezed-my-paw meow. So it do it again. This time, the meow becomes a howl, followed by a brief, angry ffft! "I'm teasing the cat," I say to Joanne. I squeeze the paw again, and the cat's angry now. It growls and yelps and screeches, ffft-fffting along. I look around to see who might wonder what I'm doing to a cat, over here in the corner, but nobody's looking at us. And when I squeeze again -- and you would have, too -- the cat actually jumps up at me. I suck in a breath and pull my had back suddenly and it shakes and skitters and lets out the most God-awful series of angry cat noises I've ever heard. I turn to Joanne and say, "It's a toy that teaches children to taunt cats." We watch it for a minute, as it vibrates across the counter. "I wonder if they have an artificial bee-hive we can poke with a stick." (This is the Lost EOD. I wrote it a couple of years ago, then lost it. It has since been found, and scolded for running off.) ★