OUR DOG DUDLEY'S ABILITY TO SLEEP; A TRIBUTE TO PIES -- AT THE STATE FAIR AND AT HOME -- THANKFULNESS

Before we move along to the adorable topic of this edition of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap, one more note about Thanksgiving — an annual holiday that ought to be a daily practice.
 We've got a Contemplation you may want a slice of — just FYI, I had pumpkin pie and apple pie desserts at Thanksgiving. Anybody know a priest who focuses on caloric forgiveness? Now, we return to the topic of this particular day.
Our featured critter for this weekend’s Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap is our own big ol’ dawg, the Border Collie/Lab mix, Dudley.
That mood shot (left) is what happens when you tell a very savvy dog, “Hey, Dudley, give me an impression of a male human who’s just finished off a big Thanksgiving dinner and can’t fight off a nap.”

And there he is. Dudley told me, “I figure this is about as far as an overfed human male can get after taking on a load of traditional dishes, hot rolls and homemade desserts. On just two legs he probably can’t stand up at the table without falling over and going into a full-on napflop." 
Dudley is so aware of human nature.
Dudley the Angel, a wander-up/probably dumped dog who arrived at our house in Oak Cliff almost a decade ago, quickly was named in honor of the character portrayed by Cary Grant in The Bishop’s Wife (1947) and Denzel Washington in The Preacher’s Wife (1996). He is such a good dog, this sweet boy Dudley the Angel. And, yes, taking a nap after a meal is not beyond his imagination. 
Martha took the better photos of Dudley. I took the “artistic pictures.” 
FYI: Dudley is proof that a dog nobody wanted can become a member of the family and a guiding influence on manners, attitudes and appreciations of the slightest hint of civilization in the kitchen. I hug him all the time. He puts up with it.
[LARRY EXPLANATORY ASIDE: Yes, that IS our slim dog Wendy, white with tan spots and a wagging tail. I snapped this photo on morning last week. I was walking past Martha's bathroom door and Wendy had been snoozing on a rug and, yes, that is Dudley sitting there. He is sleeping while sitting. Sometimes he does that. Just sits down and, if nobody offers him a treat or a petting session, he nods off while sitting. Yes, I absolutely envy him. He can sleep prone or sitting --it occurs to me he might have been dumped a decade ago by a cranky and envious insomniac. I'm kidding. We insomniacs are generally too kind to dump an animal over a little shut-eye. That would keep us up nights.]
CONTEMPLATION
REGARDING PIES

Yes, as the crowning achievement of my vegetarian Thanksgiving I finished off the meal with a slice of pumpkin pie and a slice of apple pie. Then I fell asleep on the floor next to my chair. I’m kidding Dudley. He knows better. OK, I’ll confess: I might have had two slices of each — I lost track…Martha had a bit of each pie too. And, as we took delicate bites of the treats we found ourselves contemplating our previous quite exciting encounter with the food group "Pie."
 It was, gloriously, in mid-October when we helped judge the great State Fair of Texas’ Creative Arts Pie-Baking Contest. I am convinced that it is unlikely that I will ever again taste pies the quality of those baked by the great cooks at the State Fair. Yes, I am thankful for the State Fair pies. I’m generally thankful for any pie. (That photo shows some of the SCORES of pies in the competition at the 2022 Fair!)
But, heaven-on-a-fork, those State Fair pies were a privilege and I’m betting some — if not all — of the contestants served their State Fair competition pies to family gatherings on Thanksgiving Day. Our dog Dudley likes pie. OK, we haven’t really been able to determine what he doesn’t like — except for lettuce.
[DEAR READERS: Let us celebrate your sleeping dogs, napping cats and other snoozing individuals, i.e., the brother-in-law who came for Thanksgiving and is planning to stay until after the Super Bowl. Send photos and bios of your critters to dallrp@aol.com and we’ll post ‘em in our long-running feature Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. [That's an "AWAKE!" photo I took of Dudley -- he puts up with my typing.] Remember, by helping us feature your critter, you’ll be reminding people to make room in their homes and their lives for a lovable friend who becomes a definite member of the family. And you’ll be encouraging insomniacs to believe, they, too can sleep -- if they can take in the right number of calories to activate the doze-off gene and if they can assemble the proper amount of padding around their chairs when they do the napflop.  That can happen during some relative’s long pre-meal speech about politics while the first-course soup gets cold and your family is not the kind who'd have somone say, “Hey, Granny, can you whip us up some of that chilly Vichyssoise.” Oui, Slim.]
— Offer diet tips ’n’ recipes by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing dallrp@aol.com and make the subject line read “DROP THE FORK, SLIM, AND NOBODY GETS HURT.” —