How the Weather Does Turn!

To be honest, I had planned to post yesterday, as I had some wonderful photos to share.  But, alas, I forgot  to upload them, and ran a wash on my phone, which deleted the treasures - at least it seems that way.

A week ago, we had our freeze and thaw.  From there we had rain.  And more rain.  And some sun.  Yesterday, being Presidents' Day, we awoke to rain.  I looked out the nook window and saw the drops falling heavily in the kiddie pool, the birdbath and the pond.  Not a great start to a day where the dogs needed to get out!  The front windows were awash with water, as the rain usually hits them relentlessly when it's arrived.

So, around noon, when the sun finally peered out, I grabbed the dogs and ran them to Commonwealth Lake in Cedar Hills - where my first house was.  Gorgeous!  They  chased a nutria, Skally and Simon both went into the wash, drinking the water and relishing the coolness of the dunk.  Samson and Rusty stayed as clear of the wet as possible.   This was followed, later, by a rambunctious romp in the park near our current home.

Today, we walked through the coolness of the damp morning before I fed them and headed off to work.  And this evening I came home and found them calm - but in need of attention.  Skally, though, seemed rather reluctant to move much - it appeared she was in pain from arthritis, or something was bothering her.

You see, Skally is now approaching 15.5 years (March 2 marks the date, and her 15th anniversary with me.  Yesterday, at the park, she found herself skulking around a 14month old, intact, male, who threw himself at her lusty advances.  There was a cry of pain from her, as her older bones couldn't really handle the slight impact they once enjoyed.

So, this morning, I put a doggie aspirin in one of her pieces of beef that I add to her food.  It didn't seem to have helped her this afternoon, and I began to fear for our time together.  

After I caught a short glimpse of Judge Judy, I changed and packed them into the car, in the falling slight rain, and we went to the park - which was deserted after the not long earlier downpour I'd seen once I arrived home (that's one reason we waited).

Well, Skally still seemed stiff - but she was happy enough hanging out the car window on the way down.  While sniffing about in the park, she wanted to play, but it didn't appear her body would allow this - until....
A 2 year-old terrier came into the small dog area, adjacent to ours.  He began to bark at my girl and boys.  Skally began running up and down with such zeal and aplomb it was difficult to remember her not a half hour earlier, walking stiff-legged.

And yet, there she is...having the time of her life!

And it continues - especially with the help of Trusted Rusty (Sammy comes into the fun for a short time, and Simon is too busy chasing his ball around the rain soaked landscape....).

After 15 minutes of this, the little dog left, and we played a little more...but found no one else on the horizon.  So, we took a hearty walk around the neighborhood, through the woods, and looped around back.

Tonight they are quiet and tired, having had their dental chews, dinners, beef/chicken/pork hides, and other assorted treats.  It won't be too difficult to retire this evening.  Nor for me.

INCIDENT ALERT!!!!!!
Just so you don't believe these guys are incapable of anything disgusting or naughty (or that I'm anything but daughty), this morning before we headed home, we cut through one of the neighborhood greenspaces.  Of course we stopped here and there for sniffing, peeing, etc.  Well, my defense is that at 5 am it's sort of dark - especially in  a thicket of trees.

We walked home, and maybe I was too engrossed in my audiobook, or a little tire, or something, but it wasn't until we arrived on the front doorstep I noticed that Rusty's mouth looked odd.  'Hmmm!' I thought to myself.  'I wonder what that is that's stuck to his chin.  Poor Rusty - he probably doesn't want to bother me.'  I reached down to relieve him of the long object that seemed to be projecting from his chin on the other side of his face.  I pulled- and discovered it was a feather that wasn't locked into his chin - but to the rest of the bird firmly lodged in Rusty's mouth.

Yes.  Rusty had grubbed a bird he'd found.  Seconds later, he was trotting through the house dropping his prize on the hallway carpet, where he began to munch and crunch.  I ran by and grabbed some TP, and grabbed the little fat body on the floor and swooped it up and out the door to the garbage.  I won't begin to tell you what Rusty called me after that.  It broke my heart - but better that than having some odd disease running rampant through his body and my house!  <sigh>