I got back from my morning walk with Ayla about 20 minutes ago. Had to drop off hubbers at work this morning since we are going to check out a house together when he gets off and it’s easier if we only take one car so this delayed our usual morning walk. Ayla was whining and barking when I came home and I could actually hear her on the street. Granted most of our windows are open since it’s so warm out but there was still no reason for her to carry on like that. No clue how long she had been doing that but it’s a clear case of separation anxiety if i ever saw one…of course she was all wound up and ready to go for a walk at 6.30 already so that probably didn’t help.
Anyways, so I took her for a walk as soon as I got home. She greeted the horses in the field behind us, seemed like she wouldn’t fight me this morning for once (she only wants to take very short walks lately) and then she planted herself in the middle of the path before we got past the horse field. Thinking she might just want to go at her own pace and since she’s usually so good about going for a walk, I made the mistake of taking her off leash then to try to get her to follow along. She bolted through the grass into the horse field and right into their manure pile. I was trying to get her out of there any way I could think of but she didn’t care at all – she was just munching down on the horse poo. Needless to say I was pretty steamed about that but eventually got her out of there (and thankfully no one else walked by) and we went about the walk as usual.
About half way thru the walk we ran into Chippis again (a Fox Terrier who she is now great friends with and play with almost every morning) and he was covered in mud. We had seen him last night walking with someone other than his owner and a few kids and the lower half of his body was just covered with mud. Apparently it’s his new favorite thing to do.
Chippis’ owner said there is a little canal thing between two fields that is usually full of water and she was thinking he could jump in there and clean off a bit so she didn’t have to take him home filthy. Well the water in that thing was beyond muddy and of course Ayla had to join in the fun. She was so dirty after playing in there that she was practically brown. Of course I wasn’t panicking or anything. Dogs will be dogs and she was clearly enjoying herself. I was trying to figure out the best way to get her cleaned up though since I knew I had to take her out in public later and of course she has to ride in the car.
So we came home and she was starting to dry out and I thought, ok, let’s try brushing out some of the dry spots. Did I mention in addition to all this her head and front feet are also green because she has so many little sticker balls on her? I was brushing and it’s just mud, mud, mud coming off her and it’s just all over her. Caked into her fur and all over her belly. She started cleaning herself (she’s like a cat sometimes) and I knew it was far too much work for her so I decided she had to be hosed off. Since the garden one doesn’t work (don’t ask) I took her in the shower and hosed her down in there. Talk about nasty dark dirt.
Anyways, she’s mostly clean now, the bathroom has been wiped down and she is passing out under the table. I will have to brush her later since she’s got at least 100 of those stupid green things in her fur but at least she is pretty clean now and thankfully didn’t get manure all over her.
I also had a tick crawling on me which I just happened to find. Needless to say I now feel all creepy crawly and will be taking a shower very soon 😉 The morning has barely started and already so much adventure. Is it a full moon again or what? Maybe she’s just mourning Germany’s loss last night lol.
