doggy woes

I've just made the horrifying--and completely unenlightening--discovery that a dried pig's ear--you know the kind you give to dogs as chew toys?--will revivify into a REAL ear if buried in the moist ground for, say, a month.

I discovered this to my complete disgust this morning. The dog skipped in to the living room, happily bearing what looked to me like a giant clod of earth.

"No," I said. "No earth in here!"

But it was not earth. It was decaying flesh. Plumped up, pink, moist flesh, complete with rehydrated, gooey veins.

I had to touch this putrifyingly fleshy thing in order to remove it from the house. And now I keep washing my hands, Lady Macbeth style, because I can't remove the stain.