Ollie By Golly!

As I type, my paws curled over the keyboard, the temperature outside is rising. 82 degrees now, but they say by late afternoon, we could reach 90 degrees. That’s hot. I even read the other day that Seattle is drier this year than Phoenix and Tucson. While I’ve never been to either place, I have heard them referred to as a “desert” and having been born in a high desert, I remember the heat and the dryness as if it were yesterday.

We walked early this morning and then paid a short visit with Wilson and his mom, dropping off photographs since we won’t be walking him again until next month.  Then we walked north, through the schoolyard and past the grocery store to fetch Ollie who was, as usual, thrilled to see us.

He must be hot under all that hair, but Ollie is, if anything, a man of the moment, unpreturbed by heat, humidity, and my persistent urgings to play.

Gretchen walked us along the Mt. Baker ridge, sticking to the shadiest side of the streets in hopes that we would stay cool and our feet wouldn’t burn on the hot pavement.

She’s so considerate.

Of course, then we stopped by Dog Mania where we visited with the owners, chatted about the heat, and Gretchen scheduled a dreaded hair appointment for me. I love the folks at Dog Mania, but I am not very fond of getting my hair done. Ollie thought it sounded like fun and he wagged his tail and smiled his cute smile while I cowered in the corner.

But the deed is done, and Thursday morning I go to the spa whether I like it or not.

After our visit to Dog Mania, we walked down to the tennis courts and lo and behold, no one was there. Probably because it’s so hot, but not so hot that we couldn’t play a bit and pose for pictures in the shade.

But as you can tell from our hanging tongues, it was hot and that’s when Ollie begged Gretchen to take us back to our house so we could play in the kiddie pool…only Ollie wasn’t much into the pool. I was interested in it…very interested.

Ollie hung out in the shade. Gretchen dunked him in a couple of times, but he just wanted to cool off under the trees.

I tried to engage him in some romping, and eventually he engaged, but he was reluctant fearing he’d overheat.

We’d play a little, I’d dive back in the pool (Ollie refused), and then I’d race back to Ollie hoping he’d play some more.

Ollie humored me for awhile, but then I even got hot and tired and that’s when Gretchen decided we should take Ollie home. So back up the street we hiked, slowly so as not to overheat, and in the shade so our paws stayed cool. Once I finish this blog, I plan on napping because, as my good friend Ollie By Gollie said today, “It’s too hot to do much of anything, don’t ya think?”

Hopefully we’ll go swimming again before night falls.

Until tomorrow,

Rubin