Mighty stormy-looking skies out here on the back porch with the dawgs. Hasn’t started to rain yet, but it will. Snow is expected in Flagstaff, and the wind started whipping around yesterday. Nothing like the tornadoes expected in more beleaguered parts of the country. But still: 68 degrees and pregnant clouds amount to quite a change from high 90s, sun, and the pool about ready for a plunge. The pups, however, are unfazed. If anything, they prefer weather in the 60s.
Charley, my son’s two-year-old golden retriever, is still a puppy in mind and heart. So Charley and Ruby the Corgi Pup have found something in common: they’re both children. They play and play and play and play — hilariously! They’ve become inseparable except when they’re sleeping, and even then, Charley sleeps in the bedroom to keep watch on Pup in her crate.
These storms are passing inconvenient. Pup still pees about every 20 seconds — she remains to be housetrained in the number-1 department, the only dog I’ve ever had that I couldn’t train easily and fully within a couple of weeks. It appears this is a corgi characteristic. One issue seems to be that she doesn’t consider widdling worth her attention. She’ll get up out of her squat and start wandering around before she’s finished, the result being that she soaks the fur around her rear end. And dog urine sets up like…well, cat food. Forthwith, you have this stinky, tarry stuff all over the pup’s rear end.
I don’t like to wash my dogs when it’s less than 90 degrees outside. But this morning there was no putting it off. So…into the bathtub with Ruby-Doo.
Fortunately, she doesn’t hate bathing the way Cassie does. Today she decided it was a great game. She’s already learned to blow bubbles in her water dish. (True! Did you know dogs can hold their breath, stick their schnozz in water, and blow out through their nose and mouth?) She was having a grand time bubbling and chasing around. And that meant she stayed in the tub long enough to help soak the gunk off.
Now, of course, I need a bath.
But more to the point about the weather, M’hijito has to drive home from southwestern Colorado tomorrow. It can get real unpleasant in southern Colorado, Utah, and northern Arizona when it’s snowing. He’ll hit Flagstaff about sunset, right about when the roads freeze. And he’s driving his dad’s piece of Ford junk. I would really like it quite a lot if that were not happening.
He seems to have been too little to remember when his dad and I would drive home from Grand Junction through crazy blizzards in near-whiteout conditions. Maybe he was sleeping. Whatever. He shrugs it off and doesn’t think it’ll be anything. Hope he’s right.
Men! 🙄
Welp, pup has run out of steam and climbed into her X-crate for a nap. It’s 8:19 a.m., and I am going back to bed. The two clowns have been rousting me out of the sack around 3 a.m. for a midnight excursion to the backyard. If Pup so much as squeaks in the dark, nothing will do but what Charley has to get me up. This morning I never did get back to sleep. That would be 4.5 hours of sleep, thank you. Need to work on the client’s project but don’t think I’ll be doing him any favors trying to do the job in zombie mode.
Happy weekend! Hope you’re not getting stormed on.
