It rained last night.
Pretty much all night. It was a gentle rain, nothing damaging, nothing scary: no thunder or lightning or high winds. Just a nice, gentle soaking. HairyFace says that’s a good thing: it helps the vegetable garden, and the grass, and NiceLady’s flowers. That may be … but it also makes everything all wet.
Just after dawn the rain stopped and HairyFace took Jasper’s breakfast to him.
The mists were rising. Jasper was curled up in his igloo, snug as a bug. He poked his head out as HairyFace approached, Hairy caught him napping. When he saw Hairy he stretched and came to the door of his pen to get his dish. He ate and went back to his igloo. The roof offers some protection from rain, the igloo offers more.
As HairyFace came in, Volt went outside and took care of his business. Blondie and I discussed the situation.
If we all go outside to take care of our needs and come back, we all get a small chew stick before breakfast. That would be good: we like “sticks”. But because it’s wet outside, it also means that HairyFace will accost us with a towel when we come back in. We don’t like having our paws dried. We decided to pass on the sticks and just stay put for a while. Maybe it will dry out.
Volt got a small treat, but not a stick. That disappointed him, but it was still more than we got, so he was kind of smug about that.
After breakfast, it started raining again. We missed the window of opportunity. I could hold it for a while, Blondie Bear was getting antsy.
We were all in the den with Hairy. He was doing that button-pushing thing that he does on the fold-up picture box he has. He calls it a lap-top. Whatever that is, he seems fascinated with it, because he spends a lot of time tapping on the button thingies.
Blondie went to the window several times. It was open a crack and she could tell it was still raining just a little. She whimpered, “I need to ‘go’ Cochise…”
“Then go out and go.”
“But it’s raining.”
“Yep, it is.”
“You’re horrible.”
She went and laid down again next to Hairy.
Then someone’s car alarm went off. That got all of us revved up enough that we forgot all about the wetness and went outside to bark at the noise. It was barely raining then and we all stayed out to do what needed doing.
Volt went back first. It was about lunch time and he didn’t want to risk missing that.
Normally at lunch we each get a large dog cookie. But because we’re trying to fatten Volt up a bit, HairyFace gives him ½ cup of kibble for lunch instead. So he got that for Volt and put him in his room (crate) to eat.
I heard the kibbles being dished up and came in. I rushed past HairyFace as soon as he opened the door. He did not come after me with a towel. He did close the doors to the carpeted rooms, and gave me my cookie while I sat on a dog bed in the living room. My paws were clean, just wet.
Blondie was wandering around out in the yard. She often takes her lunch outside because she prefers to be outside on nice days. This time she wasn’t wandering because it was a nice day, but because she didn’t want to face having her paws dried: it tickles. HairyFace took her cookie outside and handed it too her, “Here ya go, girl, you may eat outside if you prefer.”
Blondie took the cookie and galloped up the pathway toward the back door. HairyFace laughed and followed. When he caught up to her, she was standing at the back door with her cookie sticking out the front of her mouth like a brown tongue, huffing, “Eat outside? Are you nuts? It’s WET out here.”
Hairy opened the door and she bolted through before he could grab her to dry her paws.
She took the other picture box watching room dog bed and hid behind the rolly-foot-chair while she ate. She continued to peek out at Hairy, sure he could not see her, wary for the approach of a towel. No towel came.
Eventually we all relaxed again and continued our rainy day activities. Mostly that involves sleeping while HairyFace makes soft tap-tap-tap-tap sounds on his button thingie. It’s kind of soothing, really. He says it helps him earn dog treat money. If that’s what he’s doing, I say he should keep at it and it’s much easier to sleep through than vacuuming or lawn mowing. Not that he’d be doing any lawn mowing on a rainy day like this, but vacuuming could be a threat. It’s better that he just sits there tap-tap-taping.
| If you enjoy our updates, Doggy Tales, and educational articles consider subscribing for notices when new pieces are posted. It’s painless and you can unsubscribe any time you want. Your e-mail address is used ONLY to deliver these notices. | [email-subscribers namefield=”YES” desc=”” group=”Public”] |
Jasper was sent to us because no one could manage him. He was just over-the-top energetic. He was being playful, not mean, but when a larger dog puts a certain level of energy into play, there is little apparent difference to the recipient of his affections. He jumped on people, he pawed them, clawed them, mouthed (gentle biting) them, sometimes tearing clothing, breaking jewelry, and leaving scratches on skin. And worst of all, he could not be deterred! If you defended yourself, he thought you were playing and ramped up the play efforts. Telling him to stop or get down were totally ineffective: he paid no mind to anyone. He had no idea what those words meant.
