Spring-a-ling-a-ling?

Okay, I promised I wasn’t going to write about the weather and while technically I’m not actually writing about the weather, it may sound like it in this post.

I’m going to write about Spring, which is a season that contains a particular kind of weather, but is not weather in and of itself.

I know it’s spring when I start panting more than usual. This means I’m getting warm. Like today. I panted much more than usual and while at first I thought it was because of my hair getting longer, once I compiled all of today’s data (keep reading), I realized my long hair was not the cause.

I know it’s spring when I get, as Gretchen calls it, a need to sow my wild oats. I get frisky. Today I was particularly frisky feeling the need to run and bark and chase things. In my oat sowing, I had a lot of company. Gemma had more wild oats to sow than anyone today and once she got started, Ollie jumped right in.

We walked some, but when we got the the tennis courts and found a stick there, well, the oats just started flying all over the place. I was the first to start in with the stick and then, when I wasn’t looking, Ollie took it from me. That upset me so I barked at him, but he didn’t budge. He held onto that stick with all his might. Only his oats found their way all over the ground.

Gemma could care less about the sticks. She just wanted to chase and bug and nudge us. Let me tell you, that girl really knows how to get a party started. After a great deal of pestering we were all running into each other on that court today.

I know it’s spring when I can’t stop smiling. Rosie understands this since she was all smiles today, and frisky, too. Gretchen said she let her oats out a bit as well, running and prancing alongside Gretchen as they made their way through the park. She got particularly happy when Gretchen accidentally sprinkled some of Rosie’s treats on the ground and it was all Rosie could do to hold herself back from sucking them all up!

I know it’s spring when the air smells warm. Not like temperature warm, but like the kind of fresh warm smell when Gretchen bakes bread or the clean warm smell of the lake when I get to go swimming. The kind of warm that lingers for awhile and slides right up to you while you’re walking making you say “Ahhhhh!” That kind of smell was in the air today and everyone knew it. The dogs knew it, I knew it, the birds knew, the kids at recess knew it.

I know it’s spring when you just can’t avoid it and today, I couldn’t avoid it.

But wait…it’s only the middle of January. Did I just get fooled? Apparently so. Gretchen says it’s El Nino but I can’t talk about that because it’s talking about the weather. I just get to talk about the seasons and even though it’s technically winter, it feels like spring.

Even Saber agreed today. All those signs of spring that I just listed — the panting, the friskiness, the oats and stuff — Saber felt them today too. He even got to indulge in them. Lately, because of his recent surgery, we’ve only been allowed to walk, but today, we walked Saber and then took him to the vet so he could get his stitches checked out. I didn’t have to go into the vet (thankfully), but Gretchen came back out with a happy Saber quoting the doctor, “He’s good to go!” So off we went back to Saber’s neighborhood and over to the tennis courts where he got to run free and play and wrestle with me. He also got to show that he, too, felt every single sign of spring!