I was coming in from outside, and there was a smallish-medium stoutish spider on the wall of the house next to the door; and, as she was outdoors doing her good work, I resolved to mind my own business and open the door bravely even though the handle was maybe only a foot or so from the spider—and as I reached for the doorknob, she leapt onto my hand. LEAPT. ONTO MY HAND. Just like what you might think you were ridiculous for imagining a spider would do! She then parkoured right off my hand and down to the ground, at least I hope that is what she did, because she disappeared, and I had no real choice other than to go into the house without having firmly established her location. I am pretending I am fine with this, just fine, is she maybe up my sleeve, oh dear could she be on my shoe or something?
Yesterday I tried the oft-mentioned “use mayo instead of butter on the outside of a grilled cheese sandwich,” and I can report that I did not like it. For trouble-shooting purposes, if applicable: I used Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise—nothing low-fat or fat-free, not Miracle Whip, etc. And I took to heart what a few people said about mayo not having the nice salty taste of butter, so I added a sprinkle of salt to the sandwich. The crispiness of the finished sandwich was nice, but not noticeably crispier than when I use butter. And the taste was “vegetable oil” instead of “butter.” Very distinctly vegetable oil, and not pleasantly. Like if one morning instead of putting butter on your toast, you tried using vegetable oil. I am so mystified. We just watched the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen episode where they make grilled cheese, and MANY of them used mayo. I can’t imagine they would prefer the flavor of vegetable oil over the flavor of butter, so it seems like something else must be wrong: the mayonnaise not fresh, or the wrong brand, or they make their own, or something.
Re-reading Little Women (and this paragraph will have 150-year-old spoilers, yes), I know the scene where Laurie and Jo finally have it out is Very Popular, and I DO AND DID love that scene. But my FAVORITE Laurie/Jo scenes are: (2) when he’s toying with her apron string and there’s the threat of the horsehair pillow and (1) when she’s leaving for New York and he’s being surprisingly chill about that, but then he whispers as she’s leaving, “It won’t do a bit of good, Jo.” Like, clearly, as an adult woman, I no longer think Laurie and Jo should have ended up together, and I feel sorry for Jo who just wants to be dear friends with Her Boy, and I think Laurie should have taken her at her word FAR earlier. (Young Swistle thought Jo MUST love him, how could she not? Older Swistle sees all the signs have been there all along.) But I still do love the Laurie/Jo not-romance.
I commend your spider bravery, and for not terminating her full time employment of keeping your outside door bug-free. I have an alarming large spider in my unfinished basement. Every time we run into each other, I’m startled. But also, she’s the only bug I ever encounter. So, I soldier on and appreciate her good work.
Shew. I just had grilled cheese (with butter) and weirdly I wondered if I should have tried mayo. Check that right off the “maybe I’ll try” list.
Butter is just so good, I can’t even being myself to try mayo instead. 😂 I LOVED the book but just recently watched the newer movie and agree that my views have changed over time. I so desperately wanted Jo to end up with Laurie, but now I see that she knew her mind and was strong enough to stick to it – something that I clearly didn’t appreciate when I read the book as a young high schooler.
I think that all of the chefs from that video used Hellman’s mayo from the squeeze bottle (I thought it was kind of funny that they all had the exact mayo), and on their most recent video they all ranked mayo as one of the top foods so who knows!
Ugh. What if Hellman’s is sponsoring the channel and they are all required to say this? My husband and I have noticed that as the videos have gotten more popular, there suddenly seem to be certain food items prominently displayed in the backgrounds. I’m suspicious that that package was sent to all of them as a promo, since I do think that it’s been mentioned that Gaby is in charge of getting food shipped to their houses for the videos.
I tried the Mayo grilled cheese about a year ago and was similarly unimpressed. I have had mayo as a coating on top of fish and recall that as being good.
We have similar jumping spiders here (we have a lot of spiders too) and I am not a fan of the jumping.
I should reread Little Women with my daughters.
[Shudder] jumping spiders [/Shudder]
Re: mayo on grilled cheese. I find it interesting that you got a flavor of vegetable oil, I definitely got a flavor of vinegar. But I love mayo on many things. Grilled cheese just isn’t one of them.
Re: the Bon Appetit grilled cheese episode, I was super disappointed that mostly they weren’t having grilled cheese. They were having monte cristo or croque monsieurs or a [fill in the blank] melt.
And YES about Laurie and Jo. Dude, listen to the young woman when she says she doesn’t want the relationship to change.
We (my daughter and I) are nearly finished with Little Women. I don’t remember my girlhood thoughts (I’m sure there was a lot of Jo/Laurie feelings. My daughter was like, she’s going to marry him!). My thoughts this reading are: OMFG the world is remarkably the same with electricity. Like, people wise. Idk if this is comforting or not. We’ve had numerous discussions about Hannah (read aloud she seems AfricanAmerican sometimes and sometimes not). LMA was alliterative – there are some real tongue twisters in there. And, finally, Mr Baer – it is well written but the fact that it was written under duress (Jo had to pick a dude or no publishing for LMA) annoys me. And knowing this it also feels a little tacked on.
It’s a great book and excellent to read with your 10 y/o
I stay with friends in New Orleans for Jazz Fest (in normal times). On year, on the morning of my departure, there was a spider the size of a softball (with the legs included) was on the wall. I snapped a picture, grabbed my stuff and texted the home owners, who were at work. That thing was HUGE.
I have been very suspicious about the mayonnaise so I deeply appreciate you testing it out for our collective benefit.
The spider, I am SURE, was so horribly embarrassed to have misjudged her initial jump and to so blatantly violate the spider/human contract that she IMMEDIATELY leaped as far away from you as possible.
I think using mayo (I also used Hellman) is an awful way to treat a nice grilled cheese. I greatly disliked the taste
I haven’t had a grilled cheese sandwich in years (may have to ask The Husband to make me one for lunch tomorrow) but the very thought of putting mayo on repulses me (as you have verified) and I LIKE mayo!
Re-reading Little Women as a woman and not a girl, is a totally different experience/feelings.
I am very live and let live about spiders (most bugs actually except centi and millipedes – they freak me right out) but having a spider jump startlingly onto my hand would definitely challenge my philosophy. Shudder.
H makes grilled cheese with mayo. I am a strict butter user. I’d kick up a fuss about H using mayo instead of butter, but when it comes up it’s because he’s making dinner and that means I don’t have to and our kids don’t care so…
I haven’t read Little Women in years. And I will admit to being kind of a helpless romantic who does tend to always want the girl to get the boy. (Maybe it has something to do with still being single?!?). But….I did have a moment a few years ago where I realized I had grown as a woman and a feminist. Some spoilers here…..
In my early 20’s I remember watching the movie Waitress and enjoying it but NOT enjoying the ending. Years later I was going to see the musical at our local civic center and remembered enjoying the movie and not enjoying the ending, but I couldn’t remember why. So the story goes that this woman is in an abusive relationship and in the process of getting out of the relationship she has an affair either emotional or physical (even now seeing it twice, I don’t remember) with her doctor who is married and I think in a bit a bad marriage himself. In the end, she gets out of the abusive marriage, the affair ends, and she opens a pie shop by herself and raises her daughter. The first time I saw it, I wanted her and the doctor to end up together. I wanted her to get the man. But in my late 30’s, I so appreciated that she was independent and was successful all on her own.
If someone has already mentioned this before I apologize but I have a different grilled cheese hack. Use butter. Without adding cheese, toast the buttered sides of two slices of bread in the pan. Now remove them from the pan and butter the two remaining dry sides. Flip the bread so that the two already toasty sides now become the inside of the sandwich. Add your cheese and proceed as usual with grilling the grilled cheese. Extra buttery and crispy.
I like the scene where Laurie sends for Marmee even though he’s been told not to and Meg and Jo are so relieved and happy because they’ve been so scared and overwhelmed, and then Laurie gives Jo a much-needed glass of wine and a bashful kiss. It’s very tender and friendly and deliciously sweet.
OH I LOVE THAT PART TOO. It’s, like, so presumptuous of him, but on the other hand SUCH A RELIEF that Marmee is ALREADY ON HER WAY. (And ALSO: so good that he told BROOKS, so an adult made the decision whether to actually tell Marmee.)
Yes! Exactly! So presumptuous, but right where presumption was NEEDED. And thank goodness for Brooke (and Laurie’s grandfather), I’d forgotten that detail.
But really the strongest person of them all is Marmee.
OMG I’d totally forgotten about the wine and kiss. I loved that.
I also felt like there was a lot of heat between Jo and Laurie that was too easily redirected toward Amy. Why didn’t Laurie just end up living a separate life? And though I do love Jo and Frederick together, I feel like she ideally would have stayed single.
I have another use for mayonnaise I’m curious to know if anyone has tried this: When making your own breaded chicken use mayo to coat the pieces then roll in crumbs. I use egg normally but I get a meal kit delivered once a week and they included mayo for making chicken fingers.
My husband makes a baked fish recipe that uses a mayonnaise mix to coat, then apply the breadcrumbs. It’s super good!
Our fave meal kit just did a chicken breast, topped with a brush of mayo, and crushed pecans on top and my family RAVED about how delicious it was! It will be our go-to moving forward. And as a note: we are a non-mayo fam and generally consider it a nasty topping.
I found my childhood copy of “Little Women” while safer-at-home cleaning out my garage last week! It’s a purple hardback; I don’t remember the details. I should read it aloud with my youngest daughter who is ten. Maybe something to be discussed on the other blog, but I wonder if anyone has named their four daughters after the four sisters in the story? I mean, it would obviously be quite a gamble considering that aside from quadruplet daughters, a person wouldn’t know with daughter one of there would be a daughter four…I have four daughters and think it would be unfair to have named them as such because it would somehow feel prescriptive of personalities? But, it also seems a bit daring and fun…
I have learned quite a lot from the endearing Bon Appetit test kitchen crew (and from the NYTimes folks and the Test Kitchen people), but I’m sticking with butter for my grilled cheeses. And I salt my mushrooms in the beginning (against the advice of all of them). Before the era of internet cooking advice, when I subscribed to” Gourmet” and “Bon Appetit” (I’m 48), someone in one of those magazines taught me how to cook mushrooms and I’ve successfully used their method ever since. Equal parts butter and oil on medium heat. When the butter foams, add the mushrooms. “Salt early and well.” After the mushrooms have given up their liquid, increase the heat to medium high and resist stirring until they’ve browned. If you want them crispy, just go a little longer, stir them, and wait a bit longer.
Two weeks ago, my youngest child (whose only contact with the outside world since early March has been bike rides with my husband and living with her immediate family), was diagnosed with strep and a brown recluse spider bite on the same day. It’s been a time.
Also, I’m not wearing readers, am in dim light, and am two drinks in; please excuse any errors…
I am named after the one who dies. I have never made it through the book myself (I have tried many times as a kid, I was bored to death and stopped reading. Maybe I’ll give it a try again as an adult). From what I can gather I inherited none of those qualities. My mom once said she named me after Beth because she was so sweet and selfless and I just laughed and was like, well you got me instead.
Me too! I was also named after the one who dies. And I am SO a Jo. Always have been, always will be. I do love the book and have read it many times, but have said to my mother on more than one occasion that she clearly picked the wrong Marsh sister to name me after. She agrees.
Ugh. Autocorrect/fat thumbs: March sister.
A friend finally asked her mother why she’d named her after the one who dies, and her mother said, “I named you after the one everyone in the family loves best,” so.
I have always found it troubling that the names are Margaret, Josephine, Elizabeth…and Amy. Amy seems so WRONG and so SHORT and so NICKNAMELESS in that sibling group!
I fixed that in my head by thinking Amy is short for Amelia :)
I just assume it’s short for Amelia, and you can’t persuade me otherwise.
I wonder (and maybe you know, Swistle) : was Amy a new, fashionable name at the time? I could believe that Margaret and Josephine were honor names.
This DOES seem like something I should know! The Social Security information available to the public online goes back only to 1880, which is more than a decade after Little Women was published. In 1880, there were 167 new baby girls named Amy (though the early numbers are less accurate for various reasons), compared to 7,065 new baby girls given the most common girl name, Mary. The Oxford Dictionary of First Names says the name Amy may have started as a French-based endearment (like Lovey or Honey) from the French words for love. I very much wonder how the name was perceived at the time Little Women was written. The French endearment thing makes me wonder if it was used to represent Amy’s early frivolous flouncy petted nature.
I do know that Margaret is named for her mother, and Jo for Aunt Josephine.
Amy is an anagram of May, Louisa May Alcott’s sister that the character was based on! I don’t know why they named a sibling May when Louisa already had it for a man but I think it was a family surname. I toured Alcott House in Concord and they showed where May drew sketches on the wallpaper!
My daughter’s middle name is Josephine. Obviously in honour of Jo because I remain unconvinced there’s a better literary namesake out there. She’s only 4, but she’s a Jo through and through, fiery and creative and wordy and impulsive. She’s going to make an amazing woman but man, that takes some hard parenting when she’s a small child. Which I guess is the point of the book? Although the ideals of perfect femininity/parenting have shifted a bit in the last 150 years!
I have few thoughts on mayo on grilled cheese other than bleurgh (I don’t like mayo, thinking of it on grilled cheese makes me shudder in horror). I also have few thoughts on Little Women because I’m going to confess that I have never been a big fan of the book(s). Yes, I read them as a kid, more than once each, but never really liked them. I dislike all 4 sisters for one reason or another (though I found Beth particularly insufferable, much like I found Polyanna insufferable. I guess I can’t handle such absolute goodness).
HOWEVER. I have many thoughts about your spider incident. I think you are incredibly BRAVE to have survived this ghastly experience. I think my heart would have stopped dead. If it didn’t, I would be utterly incapable of writing a coherent blog post. And the idea that a spider can JUMP about a FOOT is just… potentially nightmare-inducing. EGADS. Jumping spiders. Like the world needs MORE ghastliness.
I completely agree with your Jo/Laurie scenes. Have you seen the new movie? I adored it so so so much.
I HAVE and in fact I saw it twice and I liked it very much! Doesn’t it seem strange now to think of going to a room with strangers to watch a movie! Anyway I did it twice, without a mask, and during one performance I also ATE FOOD WITH MY HANDS.
Bad news: I like grilled cheese best with nothing on the outside at all, a sort of hottened cheese sandwich. As usual, I readily admit my tastes are not always, um, good, is the word I’m looking for, I think.
I just got rid of our stout, largish spider last night. It surprised me at a vulnerable time and enough was enough. Really, though, I want to tell you about the small spider that SHOT out of the electrical outlet when I plugged something in. Like, flew. Out of one of those holes the plug goes into! I think that should be illegal.
Spiders flying suddenly out of electrical outlets is absolutely illegal. Completely, absolutely illegal.
We will not make a ruling on your hottened cheese sandwiches at this time; we will give that information time to sink in. You know what might end up saving the whole situation is the term “hottened cheese.”
I guess I am the only one here who likes mayo grilled cheese. It’s so easy! No trying to soften the butter! Just a thin swipe of mayo and into the sizzling pan. And delicious – I’m not getting any oily taste but maybe Canadian mayo is different. (And we only eat whole-wheat-seed-bread, so there is a lot of flavour going on in the bread, perhaps on white bread it would be a different story?)
I wanted to name my first born son Lawrence after Laurie but my DH refused. I never felt the old professor was a good idea either. If not Laurie, then nobody! And I hated Amy for years for “stealing” him but my daughter saw the new film (I haven’t yet) and she thinks it will change my perspective on Amy. Apparently she is portrayed very well in this version.
Not the only one! I grew up eating and enjoying grilled cheese with mayo, despite not liking mayo as a child. I still make them with mayo. My kids and husband (who grew up eating them with butter) haven’t complained!
No, no, we do not try to soften the butter (though I do if I’m making sandwiches for the whole family on a tray in the oven instead of in a frying pan on the stovetop), we melt it in the pan and then add the sandwich! Even easier than spreading mayo! (Also, we use 100% whole wheat bread.)
That’s exactly the way we do it too! So much easier than trying to spread butter on the bread, plus if you sort of wipe the pan with the bread once it’s down, you get a higher concentration of delicious crispy butterbread along the edges, which disguises the fact that they are The Crusts.
I did see the new movie and just finished the book with my daughter and think, if you read it now, Amy stole nothing. I feel even the movie made it feel a little stealy -y but this reading, nope.
Agreed.
I love reading other people’s experiences with Little Women. I sort of internalized it very young then read it again a few years ago and was surprised at how long it was. I’ve seen all the movies and while I enjoyed the last one I found all that gorgeous hair flying around a little anachronistic, but maybe since they were often just women in the house it was ok.
I just read an autobiography called “Lady in Waiting” which will be interesting to anyone who cares about the Queen and Princess Margaret et al. The lady (who is in her early 80’s) talks about going to a beach house with just the women and girls in her family so that they could relax without men. The previous generation had called them “stayless weeks” because they could go WITHOUT THEIR CORSETS!
I’m a spider lover but appreciate others’ feelings and I think it was very kind of you to be so brave.
I wondered about the hair too. But then I thought, in the book it’s very clear that they’re borderline social outcasts in their little Massachusetts town – a little enclave of leftie hippies with new-fangled ideas like not wearing corsets or exploiting other people. And LMA was friends with Thoreau I think? So actually maybe not that implausible one an individual level?
Yes, but Jo definitely wears a snood in the book.
Mayonnaise is a funny thing for me. There is nothing in the ingredients that I don’t like, but I HATE mayo. With a passion that my husband certainly doesn’t understand! It sucks because it is like cilantro, every one assumes you want it-and I hate both of them. I love food, and I feel like I’m not very demanding, but I have a big NO to three things-mayo, cilantro and blue cheese.
Little Women-I think my Laurie-Jo shipping was influenced by the movies. Laurie always seemed so much more attractive than Professor Bhaer, until the movie with Gabriel Byrne. I still feel like the book didn’t do justice to a romance for Jo-I have lots of thoughts about Louisa May Alcott, her dud of a father. I can’t help feeling like Jo should never have been paired up with any man.
I am Australian so feel abundantly qualified for spider commentary. (‘I am Australian’ is actually the official evidence that you are an arachnologist iirc, they print it on your certificate).
Here a spider jumping on you is considered good luck. According to common superstition you will come into money. I hope that gives a silver lining to an unpleasant experience. The idea is so common that we call those tiny green spiders ‘money spiders’.
Oh!! This is a very good silver lining!
I haven’t read all the responses, but when my parents used to make mayo grilled cheese — and this is the ONLY way I ate grilled cheese until I was probably 12 years old — they put them in the oven. I assume the broiler. I think they did it like this: assemble the bread and cheese, lay on a baking sheet. Spread mayo on the top, cook (not sure how long, but until the toast is the way you like it) one side, flip, mayo the other side (? maybe) put back in the oven.
Maybe that would make a difference in the taste? I always liked it as a kid, then again it was all I knew.
Now I exclusively make them on the stove with butter, and my kids are horrified at the idea of mayo in general, much less on grilled cheese. Go figure.
Honestly, I could go either way on the Laurie/Jo thing, but the guy she marries is so much MORE objectionable. What I’d really like to see is for her to end up in a Boston marriage. But I guess if Jo unmarried at the end was a no-go with the publisher, that definitely wouldn’t fly.
I see a lot of people say this, but I don’t agree with it at all. He’s not old (his sister has young children and so does Jo’s, so they’re probably much of an age), he’s an intellectual and values her thoughts, he values her as a working woman. He’s honorable and kind. Yes, he wants her to live up to a certain moral standard in her writing but so does the entire book. I don’t honestly see what’s so objectionable about him.
The book does say he’s much much older than Jo: 40ish, when she is in her early 20s. The most recent movie made him more her age, and I appreciated the way the movie also made it clear that Louisa May Alcott didn’t want Jo to end up with anyone, but was forced to by the publisher.
You’re right! Jo writes to her mother that he’s “nearly forty, so it’s no harm” that she’s peeping at him, which I always took to mean that she was exaggerating his age a bit so that her mother would think it was more proper than it really was. “Much of an age” is an exaggeration on my part, though. Even if he’s just kind of mid-thirties, or even early thirties, he’s quite a bit older than Jo is.
I have a much braver, cooler friend. She did Doctors without Borders in India. She said there were so many spiders that she spent her whole first day killing spiders and was thoroughly freaked out . Then, she came to an agreement with the spiders. If they were just holding still on a wall, living their spidery lives, they could stay. If they were running or jumping about, she squished them because she felt they were hysterical and not to be trusted. I don’t know if that’s a good system, but that was the only way she could get anything done or sleep.
I’m thankful to live where I do – where spiders are an frightening surprise but rarely harmful or deadly. I’m also thankful there aren’t so many I have to sort them into groups (hysterical and calm).
Spider Parkour and 150 year old book spoilers in one post. Love it!
I only like it made with butter, but here is what I think:
Mayo is just oil and eggs, so I totally see why it would taste like vegetable oil when melted.
I vote stick to butter!
Modern grocery store mayo often is even worse, because eggs are only in mayo because they are needed as an emulsifier. Leaving them out is cheaper, and industrial production manages to emulsify by other means. If your mayo doesn’t need refrigeration, there are no eggs in it – leaving basically just the oil. Yum. (Not.)
At that point you’re only comparing the comparative tastes of oil vs. butter, and oil is obviously inferiour there.
Maybe the people praising the taste of mayo for grilled cheese sandwiches are also people who usually have “classic” mayo on hand, so who knows, egg as ingredient might just make the difference.
The one I used does have eggs!
Ok, then I got nothing! But it would be surprising anyway if that made such a difference.
I for one also prefer butter a lot over other fats – like home fries made with butter vs. made with vegetable oil or margarine, there’s not even a discussion to be had, butter is superiour. Or a hot piece of toast, with some cold butter (unsaltet by default in my country) that’s still half-way to melting into the toast while you eat it. Mmmm, yum!
I just had a spider encounter as well. I was outside, cleaning out a cooler with the hose. I saw the spider inside, dumped and sprayed (ok, ok, maybe I sprayed first -sorry, spider). Took the hose back to holder, looked down, and the spider was on my foot! Argh!! Spider revenge! I screamed and shook it off, we both survived, as far as I know.
I have read Little Women several times (all her books really), but the first as a kid. I have to admit that Laurie and Amy fit together much better, but I also don’t think I liked Laurie all that well. John Brooks, Grandfather Lawrence and even Mr March were so much better. I remember reading Little Women as an married adult, and my husband came from work. I was bawling and of course he was concerned. I just sobbed, Beth just died and man was he confused. Even after I explained he still didn’t get it. I think though if he had seen the movie he would (he cries at movies).
I might be the only person reading this blog who makes grilled cheese with butter on the outside of the sandwich and mayo on the inside. It has never occurred to me to do it any other way.
Same. Buttery crisp exterior, then a little extra meltiness inside. I also add mustard.
A friend had this happen in the last 48 hours and it reminded me of your spider incident…
Her young son told her he’d seen a snake in their upstairs hallway (“It was long, and green, and it had a face Mommy!” Investigations were done: there was no snake to be found, and it was assumed he was either making it up to tease her, or had imagined it. You see where this is going right? The next morning she got out of bed and casually headed down the hall to the bathroom for a shower, and what was slithering around her hall? The snake! She said she almost died of a heart attack! The suspicion is that their cat brought it in.
I have ALL THE FEELINGS about Jo and Laurie. I remember as a kid the incredibly overwhelming sense of injustice I had: that it was ALL WRONG. Amy didn’t deserve Europe. Amy didn’t deserve Laurie. Jo didn’t deserve a life in earnest poverty with her nice but dull professor.
Now I see it a little bit differently but I’m still on team Jo and Laurie forever. Like when you have a friend who just always makes the wrong call when it comes to men, and you have to bite your tongue and let them choose their own path? Jo is entitled to her own mind, and she’s very sure she doesn’t want Laurie – you can’t force that. But you can tut-tut and stand back and be quietly convinced she’s making a VERY POOR decision and she will RUE THE DAY. That’s how I feel these days.
Re mayo: Hubs is in charge of grilled cheese. I asked him and she shrugged and said butter is still better. End of.
I am Team Amy through and through. She has a backbone and gets what she wants. Sure, she’s a bit of a brat at times, but who wouldn’t be in a house full of sisters?
Also, pickled limes.
A few years ago I spotted a small lizard in our hallway, and called my husband to keep an eye on it so I could get a container to get him safely outside in. He did not do that, he put a box over it that was way too big, and then instead of letting me slide the very thin cutting board underneath, lifted the corner of the box, allegedly to help me.
The lizard ran at me, toward the future nursery, and I looked for him for an hour before giving up, figuring he would eat bugs or scorpions or be helpful in some way.
Then I did a load of laundry, puttered in the kitchen, and then finally flopped down on the couch to read my book. As soon as I flopped, the lizard ran out of my pajama pant leg, where he had been hitchhiking for an hour and a half. I screamed and managed to eventually shuffle it out the dog door.
I thought you might enjoy this Little Women tweet – it made me laugh: https://mobile.twitter.com/JenAshleyWright/status/1210755016849379328