Thanks to member Labdp for her contributions to our blog!

Maddie, our little English Springer has a complaint. She says, in no uncertain terms, that I throw like a girl. And she is right. She loves to chase the ball. Trouble is I have a weenie arm. I do my best, but often the ball hits her in the butt or the back because she runs faster and farther than I can toss the ball. I have not tried a ball chucker even though we have two of them. We have one that holds a tennis ball, and one that is like a golf club. I think I'd be dangerous with either of those. A bad throw within range is better than a bad throw out of range, or threw a window, or into the yard next door.

In my defense, I try to work with gravity when I throw. I toss it down hill, or underhand figuring momentum and gravity may compensate a bit for ability. And, I do apologize for my inefficiency in this area. Even with thumbs I'm a lousy tosser. All I can say is c'est la vie. I try, that counts for something.

And come to think of it Kobe has a gripe too. He dislikes loud noises and fireworks. Surprisingly, people are still shooting a few fire crackers. Enough already! Give the nervous dogs a rest, at least until next year!

And on grooming - the dogs are shedding like crazy. I've noticed an interesting phenomenon. I'll brush Kobe within an inch of his life. Until no more obvious fur is loose. I'll clean the shedding blade and start over, and voila!! More shedding - like I hadn't just brushed him! Why, if this is the case, don't they go bald?

And last but not least a word on mulch. I put down a nice thick layer of wood chips in front of the house to try to eliminate some of the muddy paw syndrome we suffer from. Mulch is free and plentiful right now, due to storms that plowed through here a couple weeks ago with 110+ mph winds. Many, many trees had damage and the city is chipping the wood and giving it away. Which leads me to my question. Why does a layer of new mulch inspire digging? Is there a scent on the wood and the dogs figure the smell is buried right there? If it's buried, by golly, they better dig it up!

That pretty much says it all, brushes it out and digs it up. Life with dogs is like that. They forgive me for tossing so poorly, and I forgive them the fur and the digging. It's all about compromise isn't it??

1 comments so far...