March 10, 2009
Mud: The Natural Consequence
I shouldn’t have been surprised by all the mud today. With the weather we’ve been having, I should of expected vats of the stuff on our walk today. As it was, the mud was equal to the amount of rain and snow and sleet and hail we’ve been experienced of late.
Usually mud doesn’t bother me, but today it was kind of funny because we took out two of our “jumpers” — Ollie and Lucy. They are significantly different types of jumpers, but they are jumpers nonetheless. Lucy jumps up to beg for a tennis ball — a ball to be pulled from the backpack, thrown across the field, or simply placed in her possession. When she returns with the ball after speedily retrieving it, she leaps up on Gretchen with such a force, if Gretchen’s not prepared she can be knocked backwards.
Ollie, on the other hand, leaps for no apparent reason other than pure and simple joy. Seriously. He can knock Gretchen in the chin if she’s not careful. The boy was born with springs for legs. When he sees us coming he pogo sticks himself up and down in sheer delight. Once we enter the gate, he’s all over us unsure who to enthusiastically greet first.
So today, as we were playing fetch at the muddy park, Gretchen did her best to take a photograph of her muddy pants. The camera doesn’t really capture the extent of the mud, but you get the idea anyway.
Ollie’s leaping was contagious today. We all got into the act. Well yes, Lucy is obsessive about fetch and predictably chases after the ball, races back, throws herself on Gretchen, and begs to do it all again. Meanwhile, I play fetch, too, but I love to grab my ball and leap around with Ollie. We play by throwing ourselves in the air and at each other. It gets pretty silly, as you can see.
At first, we had Ollie off-leash and he raced around chasing me, but then he got kind of nervous — different sounds make him stop and stare — so to be safe, Gretchen had him drag the red leash around. He doesn’t seem to mind.
And where’s Lucy? You guessed it. Like a bullet train!
Determined. Tenacious. Persistent. There are a ton of words that fit Lucy’s personality (dogonality!), but she’s having fun and that’s all that counts, yes?
Of course, Gretchen can get us all to stop with the promise of a treat!
Ollie’s there, too, but he rarely holds still so he moved himself right out of the picture. Gretchen tried again, but as you can tell, Ollie was focused on something else — an odd sound in the distance.
After treats, we all got back to playing — Ollie and I got silly with each other playing WHO CAN BE THE MOST FEROCIOUS and Lucy does what Lucy does best…race after tennis balls!
We walked down through the park and back up through the trails just in case we didn’t have enough mud on our paws. Lucy and Ollie were both dropped off at their respective homes and then Gretchen and I headed down to pick up Quillette. Quillette didn’t feel like getting muddy, so we just walked through the park and down by the museum. It’s nice to have an older dog to hang with. Quillette also stayed with me at the house today. We both enjoyed the sunshine on the back deck!
I love to soak up the sun on our deck. I’ll often “woof” just to get them to open the door so I can position myself just beyond on the door. Quillette was jealous, as you can see, and wanted my spot, but I hung onto the prime real estate!
While Quillette and I lounged in the sun, Gretchen headed to the top of the hill to pick up Chloe. Chloe got a solo walk this afternoon and she seemed particularly pleased with herself! Apparently, they walked down to the lake (lucky Chloe) and Gretchen couldn’t resist a nice couple of portraits of Chloe.
Gretchen’s decided that Chloe used to be a monk in her former life. She’s very contemplative on their walks. While she smiles whenever Gretchen picks her up from her house — bounces around and barks a lot, too — on her walks she’s all business!
Gretchen says Chloe has a way of taking in the beauty of the world stopping on occasion to just look out at the panoramic views every now and then. She’s also very well-behaved so when asked her to sit and wait, Chloe does just that while Gretchen frames the photograph.
She’s pretty cute…Chloe that is!
Perhaps all this sunshine is a sign that Spring just might appear this year. While along the lake, Gretchen saw more signs — the turtles sunning on the branch in the water and the waterfowl lapping up the edibles on the beach.
It’s been a good day. Now Gretchen’s off to her night job and Quillette and I get to hang out until my other mom comes home. Good thing because I could use some rest from today’s mud! Quillette’s pretty happy about it, too!
Until tomorrow!
Rubin…and Quillette!
