It’s never a dull day at The Bee office. On Monday the office was startled by cries of “No, Deke, No!”

“No, Deke, No!” is commonly heard around the office, because the chocolate lab who goes by that name has a great nose for trouble and he routinely follows his sniffer right into the thick of it. But this time, the “No, Deke, No!” were coming from The Bee’s photo scanning area and it sounded particularly urgent.

It turns out Alfred, the office mouse, had been walking around the ceiling panels of the office, minding his own business and apparently not watching where he was going, because he fell right through an opening in one of the ceiling panels. Good hunting dog that he is, Deke naturally wanted to fetch the scurrying thing, so he immediately pounced upon and started sniffing around Alfred. While most of the women in the immediate area squealed in horror, Sue Leniart finally scooped the creature up with a few newspapers, and Mark LaRosa took him outside. Deke had to return to being content with an old tennis ball for fun. It used to be that mouse-catching was a cat’s job.

As if the cold mornings weren’t enough of a reminder that winter was approaching, I got a call this week from Marie Sturdevant informing me that the Salvation Army bell ringers will be out in full force starting December 7. Where did fall go?

Thanksgiving is always held on the fourth Thursday in November and this year it is being held on November 22, the earliest it can possibly fall. That means an extra long holiday shopping season.

Town employees are planning a farewell party for outgoing Health District Director Mark Cooper, who will take over as first selectman in Southbury December 3. The event is going to be held at the Villa Restaurant. Call Maureen in the Health District if you plan on attending.

Speaking of parties, the annual Town of Newtown Christmas party is now being scheduled and everyone is talking about Zoning Enforcement Officer Gary Frenette’s promise to give a demonstration of the “Frenette Flop.” We’re not sure what this is all about, but it sounds like a can’t-miss event.

Four-year-old Damien, the adorable grandson of Herb and Michelle Rosenthal, came home from the hospital Tuesday after a five-week battle with e-coli, a bacterial disease that had everyone concerned. Damien spent much of the time in the intensive care unit at Yale-New Haven Hospital where he was on dialysis.

A relieved Michelle called the first selectman’s office this week to report he was finally at home sitting on the couch watching cartoons and eating Spaghetti-o’s (Damien, that is, not Herb).

The class of 1996 from Newtown High School will be holding its fifth year reunion on Friday, November 23, at Colorado Brewery in Danbury from 9 pm to midnight. Mike Storms, the senior class president, is arranging it. Grads who want to attend (or just want to add their names and addresses to the class’s website, or just want to stay in touch with Mike) e-mail him at mastorms@alumni.princeton.edu.

The Newtown Lions Club is holding a pancake breakfast from 8 am to 1 pm on Saturday at the United Methodist Church to benefit the victims of the World Trade Center disaster. Tickets at the door are $5 for adults, $2 for children ages 4 to 14.

The Veterans’ Day ceremonies held Sunday, November 11, at the VFW-American Legion post on Tinkerfield Road made quite an impact. As the ceremony was ending, the military men fired three loud blank charges from a field artillery piece. The concussive discharges were so intense that they triggered several automobile burglar alarms several hundred yards away, filling the vicinity with the odd electronic chirps and whistles that such devices make.

It was a cold but a clear day at Newtown Hook and Ladder’s Firehouse open house on Main Street last Sunday. The firefighters had their new ladder truck on display with its 105-foot-long ladder extended. I bet if I climbed to the top, I could get a good view of Redding and Easton.

If you are wondering where are the trees going in Newtown, it’s not for development – it’s for photocopies. There are 72,000 copies made a day in the Newtown school system; of that 22,000 are made at the high school, and 5,000 at each elementary school. No one knows how many copies are made at the middle school or the district office. But Board of Education Chairman Elaine McClure points out that the text book requests at the high school for the upcoming budget year are down.

The Newtown High School Drama Club will be presenting The Diary of Anne Frank this weekend – November 16 at 7:30 pm and November 17 at 2 and 8 pm. Be sure to go see a performance. Word is that it’s an extraordinary production.

There will probably be a mad dash for the 5/6 school site after the Thanksgiving weekend, if people can get up after eating turkey and the fixings, to sign the steel beam that will be part of the school. People can sign from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm Monday, November 26. Other selected community members will sign on Tuesday, November 27, during a Topping Off Ceremony.

New Assistant Superintendent Alice Jackson has been adding flavor to the school board meetings. Ms Jackson has been supplying various fruits for the past few meetings. But the newest addition to the table is water. Hydrated minds work better than dehydrated minds, especially during the lengthy meetings.

Did you see the nice letter in the Sunday New York Times on November 11 in which Diane Warner wrote about the inexhaustible patience of her veterinarian husband, Neal? It was a wonderful tribute to one of the few people in town who really understands cats … and dogs, and mice, and any other kind of quadruped you can think of.

Now, you will have to exercise a little patience of your own, because it will be a full week before you can…

Read me again.