Cary has been wanting to buy a coin sorter (one that isn’t battery- or AC-powered), so last weekend, we shopped for one. I didn’t think finding something like that would be difficult, but boy was I mistaken. We tried Target (Super, Greatlands and Regular), Office Depot/Max, Walmart and a few other places with no luck. We did find a coin sorting kit at Staples — it was just what Cary was looking for: 4 coin tubes for counting coins — but it was priced at $15.00….for four plastic tubes. So we went home, and I thought, “Why don’t we check the Eckerds that’s only a few feet away from our apartment?”. Sure enough, we finally found one that was only $5.99 and included a multi-level coin sorting tray. So we take it home and later that night, we’re sorting coins.

The coin sorting tray is a plastic bowl-looking container that consists of a bunch of different discs that fit together. Each disc has holes in it that fit smaller and smaller coins. The top shelf holds quarters, and has holes in it that are nickel-sized, so the nickels, pennies and dimes fall to the next level, which has penny sized holes so the nickels remain and the pennies and dimes fall to the next level, and so on and so on. Once all of the coins are sorted, you take them out and load them into the coin tubes, then wrap them. It’s cool and all, but one thing about this sorter is that it’s LOUD. The fastest way to use the sorter is to dump the coins in the top shelf and shake it back and forth to let the coins fall. The only problem is that because of the type of plastic that the sorting trays are made of, the rattling coins make a LOT of noise.

It’s this noise that possibly made Merlin and Megan freak out, because as soon as I started sorting coins, there was a scuffle.

It’s also possible that this noise had nothing to do with the rumble. We think maybe Merlin might have climbed into Megans house to try out the new bed we bought for her. Merlin has napped in Megans house before with no problems, so maybe it was this combined with the noise.

At any rate, I get up from the table to see chunks of Merlin fur lying on the floor near Megans house. Megan is sitting in her house wagging her tail with a tuft of fur hanging from her mouth. Merlin is on the other side of the living room looking — for the most part — normal. After looking closer, though, it appears that Megan might have swiped at Merlin with her paw, or maybe snapped at him and grabbed some fur. There’s a milk-cap-sized patch of pink skin on his right side. The skin looks normal aside from a small scrape in one corner (probably where a claw or tooth made contact). I was concerned at first, but then we realized that after the incident, Merlin and Megan were acting completely normal. Merlin wasn’t avoiding Megan, Megan wasn’t growling at Merlin. I think it was just like all of the other little tussles they’ve had, except this time, there was more contact than usual (most of the time, they just end up chasing each other for about 10 feet and then stopping).

Needless to say, seeing the bare skin made me wonder what Merlin would look like hairless. It almost makes me want to shave him. But I’m not that cruel.

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