Because the weather has been impossibly beautiful these past couple of weeks, and our apartment has begun smelling increasingly of dog urine (we think it's seeped into the cheap laminate flooring and now there's nothing we can do, no matter how much powerful bleach I regularly pour on the floor), we've become accustomed to having the window (singular, as there is only one that hasn't been painted shut) open whenever the temperature outside is equal to or less than the temperature on our thermostat.  It has been lovely, and it has supplied us with more than our fair share of fresh air.  Or heavy, toxin-filled city smog.  Whichever.

However, we have no screens over our windows because the windows are original to our early 20th-century building, and apparently screens weren't invented until decades later, or at least weren't considered a necessity back then.  But because the reek of dog urine really is overwhelming sometimes, we have run a cost/benefit analysis and concluded that the flies that inevitably find their way inside and then cannot escape are worth the fresh air.  At least for a little bit, until we shut the window and find ourselves stewing in the reek of dog urine again, except this time with a few dozen flies buzzing around, as if we are attempting to create our very own landfill.  And being very successful at it.

Rufus, who obviously feels guilty about his inability to control his bladder activities while experiencing separation anxiety EVERY SINGLE DAY, has taken it upon himself to help us with our fly problem.  And what do you know?  He's actually good for something.

I thought he had dropped it on the ground behind the couch until he walked away licking his chops.