A sunny pause from muddy paws
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- June 24, 2020
- 820
After weeks of rain, Mother Nature finally took pity, giving us several days in a row of clear skies and sunshine. It was lovely, and we all enjoyed it, especially our dogs. They got to go outside and romp around in the grass and not get muddy — at least if they romped in the dryer areas.
One area in our lawn aspires to become a pond and never gets totally dry. And guess which area our dogs make a beeline for? Yep, neither dog likes being wet, but they don’t mind muddy. In fact, our little dog will find a deep, wet, gooey, mud spot and roll in it (and she doesn’t like baths). Our house cringes when little dog comes inside covered in wet earth and trots around on her clean floors. Applying a mop to those muddy prints helps our house cope with dirty paws.
Such nice weather encourages outside work, but our house will insist on certain attentions to her interior. Her pantry was in dire need of attention, and she insisted we take on that task ASAP. And it was a task.
We found ancient containers of spices, a few very old boxes of pasta and several cans of sauces that were dated 2010. I wondered if they were still eatable, but just in case they weren’t, Taller Half emptied them, washed them out and threw the cans into the recycling bin. Actually, I did the washing and recycling, but Taller Half wants it known he insisted those cans be opened and the contents disposed of.
It took most of an entire day to get our pantry in order. With all the outdated food stuffs disposed of, our pantry boasted two empty shelves. By now those shelves have both been restocked with items we hope will be devoured before they reach antique level.
While we were handling the pantry chore, our dogs managed to push open the front door and escape outside. They immediately found mud holes and wallowed in them to their hearts’ content. Then they rolled about in the loose grass left by the mower.
Once thoroughly mud- and grass-coated, both dogs rushed back inside our appalled abode and tried to demud and degrass themselves on the rugs. Our house was furious, the rugs filthy and our dogs ecstatically happy.
Because we love our dogs more than we love our rugs, we began the chore of rug cleaning. Our house appreciated our efforts, and our dogs didn’t care. At least they didn’t care until dog bathing began. Now the rugs and dogs are clean, and we are exhausted.