Lovely day, with a powerful west wind and cottonball clouds in a cerulean sky.

The last upstairs bedroom is finished—trimmed and painted. And that means the entire interior of the house is finished. A milestone. All that's left is the porch.

As I was mowing the patch of lawn over the weeping bed—recent moisture has actually got the grass (and other things) growing—I glimpsed Pax moving fast downslope toward the water with something big dangling from his jaws. I left the mower and hustled after, but by the time I got to the shore all I foiund was Pax swimming. No sign of any victim. Decidedly odd—Pax prefers wading to swimming, and I know I saw something.