Jonathan

Meet Alan Dyson, a research scientist experimenting with the longevity effects of a newly discovered bristlecone pine tree gene. He thinks he's being watched and followed. He's right. When his secret formula is stolen, and all notes are wiped from his computer, his friend--the firm's computer programmer--secretly tracks the thief to a P.O. Box in Zion, Iowa.

Question: when do sewer rats in suburbia acquire intelligence and cunning? Answer: when they begin calling each other names. For Duff and Tuff, newly arrived on Conner's lawn after being ejected from a drain culvert during a flood, their I.Q. soon begins to rise while Conner's falls. Conner, you see, is obsessed with TV. Now the plan is to keep this bachelor from going through with his vow to change his life (and their situation) by pretending to be his supposedly deceased ex wife. Inspired by "Who Moved My Cheese?", this short fable has but one lesson: imagination is linked to reading, not watching television.