Stir it Up!

Today Gretchen wishes she’d switched out lenses. Especially at the end of the day when she made a decision she had to pay for later. If she’d had her telephoto lens on her camera, the photo above would provide more details like the crazed look on Monty’s face as he did figure eights in a very muddy puddle. It would have shown a thrilled Saber watching the crazed Monty and then, as Saber is wont to do, imitating Monty down to the last curve in the figure eight.

But she didn’t have her telephoto lens and so we are left with scant evidence of the wild times of Mr. Stinky. Yep, that’s Monty’s nickname — Mr. Stinky — and after his wild escapades with the puddle, he stunk to high heaven. So did Saber, though not as badly as Monty.

How did we end up at the dog park with the puddles? Well, that’s a long story, which happened at the end of our work day, so I shall explain later. (How’s that for a teaser?)

My day started with sleeping in. Yes, I was pretty tired after yesterday’s agility class on top of my work day, so Gretchen let me stay home while she went to her morning teaching job. When she got home, though, I was ready to rumble and since she had Monty in tow, rumble was definitely on the agenda!

And who better to rumble with than our little protege, Saber. Monty and I have decided to teach young Saber a thing or two and let me tell you, that rascal is a quick study.

We decided to play at the tennis courts because we were all feeling energetic. Monty played on the bench (as he’s prone to do) while Saber and I wrestled and chased, chased and wrestled.

Saber, curious as to Monty’s ways, went over to check out the lure of the bench and in the process, stole the ball Monty was playing with.

Luckily, Gretchen carries three of them so once we all got a ball in our mouths, we frisked around like wild beasts!

Then Gretchen decided to to pose the three amigos together, only Monty decided to be inappropriate.

“Saber,” he said, “I hear a little snip snip is scheduled for Friday?”

“Snip snip?” Saber questioned.

“Well, son,” Monty continued, “Your soon to be a man and when that happens, the humans decide to alter you a bit.”

“Alter me?” Saber was afraid and decided avoidance was the best bet. He looked the other way.

Please note: I am doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing — posing for the camera!

“Alright, Monty,” Gretchen interrupted, “That’s enough.” And then she re-posed us and shot the photo as quickly as she could.

Only Monty, always the clown, decided he had to primp!

“Wait, wait,” he said to Gretchen, “I need to get my hair just right.

Jeez.

We went for a walk then and the whole way, Saber kept trying to get me to explain what “snip snip” and “alter” meant. I didn’t have the heart to tell him. He’ll know soon enough, I suppose.

We dropped Saber back at home and then Gretchen fed Monty and me while she went off to walk Rosie. They hiked their way up to Bradner Gardens where Gretchen got Rosie to pose on the salmon bench. Rosie couldn’t believe the salmon were real. “They don’t smell like salmon,” Rosie observed, “but they look like salmon.”

“They’re carved into wood,” Gretchen explained.

“What will they think of next?”

Gretchen’s also been playing a new game with Rosie. Rosie, like me, is shy about people petting her head so Gretchen puts her hand above Rosie’s head, without touching it, and holds a treat under her hand and just in front of Rosie’s nose. When Rosie moves forward to take the treat, Gretchen pets her head. Apparently they played the game so much on their walk, Rosie started to ask to play some more. I wonder if Gretchen is going to play that game with me someday?

Rosie went home happy and tired and Gretchen headed over to Gemma’s house. Gemma’s family is remodeling their bathroom and Gemma is none too pleased about workmen in her house while she’s gated off in the kitchen. So when Gretchen showed up, Gemma was on full burners, raring to go.

They headed over to Oshi and Perrito’s house and the three of them walked through the neighborhood and then begged to go to the tennis courts. It appears everyone had extra energy today — even Oshi!

Gemma and Perrito play a modified fetch. Gretchen throws the ball, the two dogs chase after it, Gemma grabs it, carries it halfway back, and then drops it…much to Perrito’s enjoyment!

Gemma walked the boys back home, stopped by to pick up me and Monty, then we walked Gemma home where she raced to the kitchen to receive her treat. Hopefully, she slept soundly after her walk and romp and left the workers to hammer away in peace!

Monty and I then got a special treat. Gretchen took us to the little field to play fetch. “Maybe if you’re tired out, you won’t be so rambunctious with Saber when we pick him up.”

Maybe.

Since we have a ton of photos of Monty and me playing fetch, Gretchen kept her camera in the bag and just threw the balls over and over again. Luxurious!

We were pretty tired when we picked up Saber, though he was thrilled to have us back and had apparently forgotten all about the snip, snip, snip. So we went for a walk and on our walk we passed by the dog park stopping along the way for a photo though Saber got kind of bored!

Normally, we don’t play in the dog park for two main reasons. First, it’s usually really muddy and second, there are often lots and lots of dogs there and it gets pretty crazy.

But when we walked by, lo and behold, the park was both empty and relatively dry, so down the hill we went, excited for a chance to romp with each other yet again.

This is when Monty went into hyper-drive. Remember, he’s 7 years old. He’s a big guy, too, though now I think Saber weighs more than Monty does, but still, he’s big. Generally Monty is pretty sedate and has taught me a thing or two about relaxing. And even after all the fetching previously to our dog park visit, Monty came alive and went crazy racing through the park doing figure eight after figure eight.

And then he found the puddle. Perhaps the only puddle in the park, but a puddle nonetheless.

Monty is generally a really good listener, but get him around water and his ears turn off. Gretchen only got one photo of Monty going berserk in the puddle because Saber, who wants to be like Monty more than anything (everyone does) decided to copy everything Monty did. The last words I heard from Gretchen were, “Oh no,” and she threw her camera down on the bench and raced to the puddle to pull Monty out.

He was one muddy, happy guy!

We took Saber home, but only after Gretchen gave him a serious rub down with the towel in her backpack and the towel Saber’s parents left out for him. Still, Gretchen owes Saber a bath after today’s escapades and she’s hoping to give him one soon!  Maybe after his snip snip snip when the sutures heal up!

As for Monty, he did get a bath when we got home and then escorted back to his house so he couldn’t get into any more trouble.

I, for once, was a good boy and only my feet got muddy so instead of a whole bath, I got my feet washed, which is getting off pretty easy if you ask me.

Who knows what tomorrow holds, eh? Good thing Monty isn’t on the schedule because he really knows how to stir it up!

Until then,

Rubin