Your Call!

Howdy, everyone. It's 20 degrees here in game-rich Andes, New York, this morning, but the sky is electric blue and the matted olive and brown meadows and field are outlined in shady places or woodlines with lingering strands of snow. That's a little different from the conditions out in the Calilfornia desert, as the photo of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden above may suggest.

Here, the first bold daffodils are poking their green snouts up out of the soil, even though it will still be weeks here before they bloom. Our dog, Buck, is standing on the couch trembling and whining as he watches two whitetail deer feeding in the meadow across the road. Can't let him out, though, because domestic dogs can run deer to death at this critical time, when the animals are much weakened by winter. Once their reserves drop below a certain level, deer have no chance of recovery from excessive stress, no matter how much they eat. Starvation doesn't suddenly set in and kill an organism; it's a process with a tipping point that can't be pinpointed accurately. It's a good thing for dog owners to know.

My thoughts on the two Indian Wells finals are posted at the home page as feature material (men's here, women's here) so I'm just providing this post to give you all a place to comment on the pending battles.

—Pete