In all of the heat and humidity that has left me feeling less than cheerful, I was happy to come across this announcement that tickled my feline fancy. On Saturday, July 31, from 11 am to 3 pm, Your Healthy Pet at 224 South Main Street is hosting a Bark Busters “Ask the Trainer” event, providing free dog behavioral assessment. What gave me a good chuckle was imagining a cat behavioral assessment…. But if your canine buddy has mystifying or irritating habits, this program may be just the ticket for you. Get questions answered and have the opportunity to win a $100 discount coupon for Bark Busters Training, and get a 15 percent discount coupon to use at Your Healthy Pet. For more information, call 203-270-7387.

I admit it. I’m normally more partial to babies that say “meow” not “woof,” but dog duo Daisy and Donald Frampton (who live with Democratic Registrar of Voters LeReine Frampton) have had some adorable puppies. There are a total of seven puppies in the litter, and proud mom, Daisy, can be seen with some of her pups online at www.framptonpups.com, where I ventured across the birth announcement. Anyone interested in the cocker spaniel puppies can also check out the website for contact information.

Sometimes the answer is right under our noses, and we don’t even know it. The Bee publisher piped up pretty quickly last week that he knew the identification of the buildings in the July 16 Way We Were column photo. Scudder Smith pointed out that the dark brown house in the distance of the right hand side of that photo is his family home, where he grew up, on Main Street. The smaller building in the forefront is his grandfather’s barn. There is still a little confusion about the identity of the larger, light-colored building on the left of the photo, though, if anyone out there happened to notice and can tell us.

There’s a new byline in this week’s Newtown Bee, and I know I’ll be following this one like I follow a moving string. Newtown Bee intern (who joins our other intern, Anna Hodge) and NHS rising senior Dani Villa hopes to go into either journalism or history, but for now she is one excellent reporter. She has worked on the staff of the NHS newspaper, The Hawkeye, and will be the paper’s editor-in-chief for this school year. Make sure to keep up with Dani this summer in The Bee! Welcome, Dani.

 I had to rub the fluff out of my ears to believe it, but listening to the public radio station program Marketplace Monday evening, I heard a familiar voice. Amaral Motors owner Danny Amaral was interviewed, for the second time this year, by Kai Ryssdal in a follow-up report on the closure of Chrysler dealerships last spring. Amaral, a former 5-star Chrysler dealership, was one of those closed by Chrysler to new sales, but as Mr Amaral suspected then, the quick dealership closures may not have been the wisest economic decision. Danny offered his thoughts on Inspector General Neil Barofsky’s new report saying just that: the bailout plans that included quick dealership closures by Chrysler may have been a mistake. He also spoke briefly on how he has rethought his business to keep afloat.

Ever since education reporter Eliza Hallabeck attended a Crime Scene Investigators, Continuing Education SMART program event, taught by Karen Pierce and Laurie Borst (one of my old roommates, by the way) she has been threatening me with a trip to Cadaver Cat School. It seems Newtown Police Officer Andrew Stinson and his canine partner, Baro, shared a bit of information with students in the class that while Baro is trained to smell out drugs, other dogs can be trained to smell bombs or human cadavers, and cats can do the same — although cats are not as frequently used. I admit I have been a bit lazy in this summer heat, but Eliza seems to think I would get more exercise if I train to be a cadaver cat. I say I like my job just fine. Besides, I think Officer Stinson may have been pulling her leg. I can’t find mention of a cadaver cat training program on the Web, anywhere.

Even though I can’t sniff out a cadaver, I did sniff out the double life of Scott Blanchard. He may be a loan officer for the Newtown office of Mortgage Force by day, but after he is done at the office, Scott has been taking a second identity. “The Riddle Man” has been telling riddles, jokes, and performing magic tricks since he was 7 years old and now he’s bringing his act to local restaurants and other locations. “The Riddle Man” will be at E.nopi, a learning center in Brookfield, on Friday, July 30, for a free performance of riddles and magic at 10 am. Ages 3 and up are welcome. E.nopi, in Suite 201 at 67 Federal Road, can be reached at 203-885-0259 for details or reservations, which are requested because space is limited.

The Discussion Salon that met regularly at Mocha Coffeehouse, until the coffeehouse’s recent demise, has had to find a new spot to hold the popular current events talk group. This Monday night, from 7 to 9 pm, the Discussion Salon will be at My Place Restaurant, 8 Queen Street. “Co-owner Mark Tambascio has generously offered their back room for our use,” says Salon organizer Ben Roberts, who hopes that the excellent pizza and one of Newtown’s finest beer selections, plus the great conversations, of course, will tempt newcomers and regulars of the Salon to make time to stop by.

When is the fountain in Hawley Pond going to start spouting? According to my reliable source, don’t hold your breath. Too much algae covering the Ram Pasture water hole makes it impossible to run the fountain without clogging the pump. Until Mother Nature provides cooler weather and balmy breezes to disperse the mass of algae, we must wait patiently.

If anyone in town has been wondering what Theodore Carl Soderberg was up to the summer of 1972, you can find out in his newest memoir, The Summer of ’72, Haight-Ashbury To Alaska. Theodore attended Newtown High School in the mid-1960s, worked at Fairfield State Hospital, and served in Vietnam. This book, his second, tells the tale of his summer college vacation in 1972, when a psychedelic experience led him to forgo the easy life on California beaches for the hazardous, and sometimes hilarious, life of a commercial fisherman. “After being dumped in the frigid Alaskan water, two fires aboard, and having shot a bear, along with many other ‘unusual incidences,’ I felt compelled to write The Summer of ‘72,” Theodore tells me, and adds, “My only regret is that I never brought a camera.” He is currently working on two more books based on his life’s adventures. The Summer of ’72 is available online at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Froogle, or at authorsden.com/tcs.

I have no doubts that the summer of 2010 holds still more amazing stories right here in Newtown, and I will be out and about to find them. So be sure to open the pages next week to my column and…. Read me again.