BREATHING FIRE

Here's a pretty little princess and her mini-dragon (at least I think that's what Chihuahua, Spike, was for Halloween).

Looks innocent enough, right?

All this holiday pet dressing up reminds me of the crap I got from some animal activists when I wrote a column about how my grandmother used to entertain us by dressing up our pets.

She was pretty unconventional and did stuff to them like putting peanut butter on the dog's palate. When his tongue went in and out trying to lick it off, Gram would pretend like he was saying things. It made us laugh and, of course, never hurt the dog.

But some readers were offended when I said she put wax paper on the cat's paws, secured with a rubber band, which made the cat try to shake it off. It always looked like she was boxing. The cat wasn't crazy about having wax paper on its feet, but it didn't hurt her.

And, you can't tell me that all those millions of pets out there who were dressed up by their owners for Halloween were loving it. Just look at Spike's face!

I'd bet most of those animal activists who nailed my grandmother with their venom, saying she was cruel, are right about now packing away their pets' costumes for next year.