Avoidance

Charley’s avoidance of the pool continues. Should I just let him not enjoy the water? He doesn’t willingly get into a bath either, so I am wondering if there is a deep-rooted issue here. Or, should we keep trying? I don’t pick him up and try to throw him in anymore. I did throw a biscuit in the pool, and he waited for it to float towards the edge and then he pawed at it and stuck his face in.  I more or less let him sniff around the pool and come back in to the house if he chooses. He has also just dipped his paws into the lake when we go…thoughts please?

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Dear Wally,

Do you still love me even when I look like this?

Love, Finn

Yes, Finn is One Pushy Broad

So dudes, the other day I showed you my apprehension about approaching the water-filled plastic thing. I mentioned that my sis, Finn is one pushy broad. Don’t believe me?

After Momma decided that Finn had enough of soaking herself, and that the water was all dirty, she turned it over, emptied it out, but left it sitting outside so it could dry out.

Finn begged her to let her out again. I followed, naturally.

Finn wouldn’t even let me near the empty thingy! She guarded it! She pushed me away from it! She jumped on me. Dudes, what is wrong with this chick?  She’s nuts.

Charley Reporting

Hey Dudes.  Charley here.  I need to tell you guys about this thing that appeared one day in my backyard.  It was big and plastic and then Momma took the hose and filled it up with water.  Finn was like totally stoked.

I needed to check this thing out.  I walked all around it and sniffed out the rubber ducks that Momma threw in there.  Finn, as always, was getting in the way of my sniffs.  She is just one pushy broad.

Apparently, I was taking too long, and so my Momma PICKED ME UP and PLANTED ME IN THE WATER. I immediately jumped out. I mean, like, why would she do that?

Then Finn started running around our patio, pushing me out of the way, so she could like jump in and out of the water. Dudes, she like got me wet.

I kept begging Momma to let me back in the house, so I could like nap and ponder away at life’s big questions, like what is thing in between my legs that Finn doesn’t have, and why does Momma get all stoked when I pee outside? Those kinds of things.

She finally let me in and my nightmare with this big plastic thing ended. Dudes, have you ever seen anything like this before in your lives???

Ice Cubes on Tasty Tuesday

Did you see Sugar’s post last week about making fruity ice cubes?  Sugar looked like she enjoyed them so much, so we had to try them for ourselves.  We decided on the blueberry ice cubes.

Imagine the scene….it is a hot summer morning, you head into the kitchen and open the freezer.  If your dogs are anything like mine, they know the sounds mean that there is fresh food coming towards them.  I open the freezer…Finn picks her head up.  I take out the ice cube tray…Charley wakes up from his slumber.  I *CRACK* the cubes free from their plastic tray…two large dogs come running in, knowing what’s next.

That was the scene in the Howard house this weekend upon creating blueberry ice cubes.

Come on Ma! Let me have one already! I see the tray on the counter!

And then you dole them out to the doggies.   I put them in the water bowls and let them try to dig them out.  All you hear is the sweet sound of licking, munching and cracking, knowing they are staying hydrated and having a cool little snack.

I see you Mr. Blueberry. I see you in there.

We emailed Sugar on Sunday to let her know about our little treats and you know what? She said she is gonna share more options for creating fruity ice cubes later this month. We can’t wait to see what she suggests because, seriously, Finn and Charley LOVED the blueberry.

Here’s a closeup.  We got 2-3 blueberries in each cube.  Delicious!

Sea Invasion

I would like the President and Homeland Security to know that if there is ever an invasion by sea, they have a new recruit in Finn.  She doesn’t let anything foreign invade her water space.

Poor duckies.  They never stood a chance.

Darn Rug.

One day, I noticed the rug in the dining room was bubbling.  

It wasn’t like that the day before. 

We lifted it up, and discovered a HUGE wet mark underneath the rug.

Could it have been a leak from the air conditioning?  No, ruled that out.

Did Finn pee on the rug?  

She had let us sleep in until 8am that day, a feat which rarely happens.

So maybe she didn’t bug us to get up because she didn’t need to go out?

We put down some paper towels and noticed that the liquid was not yellow.

Hmmm…hubby had played with Finn in the sprinkler the day before, she came in sopping wet and she had laid down on the rug to take a nap.  

Ah ha!  The top part had dried, but the bottom had not. 

So, alas, we had to dry out the rug and weigh it down on the edges so it bubbled no more.

Now we dry her off after all sprinkler fun.

Newest Bedtime Routine

So Finnie will hear Momma doing her teeth cleaning routine

and she meets Momma at the door to the bathroom so she can

get herself in the tub….

Then Momma runs the water and she just tries to drink it from the faucet…

Yes, I am wet, woman, don’t bother me with your photographs…

Then she taps, taps in the water and attempts to drink what she splashes…

Then Momma starts to drain the water and Finnie wonders

the water is leaving…

And then we dry ourselves off…

And wait until tomorrow to do it all again!  Fun times!!

Walking in the Rain

Finn has been having a pretty awesome 24 hour period.  Why, you ask?  Because, it’s raining here.  Not just sprinkles either, torrential downpour.  And what retriever doesn’t like water?  You ever notice that your walks take about 20% longer…when it’s raining?  Oh yes, we love the rain.

This is what the sky looks like.

This is the let-me-out-to-play, I’ve-been-a-good-good-girl-so-far-today look.  (Also known as I-am-going-to-reek-havoc-and-jump-and-splash-and-pull-and-drag-you-on-our-walk-today look).

This is the puddle where we like to splash.

This is the motion we like to make in water – just a little tap, tap to make sure that when the water is splashed, we can catch it in our mouths.  We do this in every puddle, no matter how big or small.

This is the tree that fell down a couple of blocks over.  Luckily, it fell into the road.

This is the rolling around in the tree moment which caused us to smell like pine.

This is where we decided to lay down for a bit and soak in the water and smells.

*Subliminal message* *Flower pictures* *Flower pictures* *Flower pictures* 

Time to shake it all off.

This where we decided to look up at the sky and try to figure out where the rain was coming from…

…in the middle of the road, no less.

And now this is what we’re doing while Mommy’s typing it all up.

Saturday Morning

Finn’s Saturday was a little bit like a roller coaster – up and down.  After a tough night of sleep, I decided we were going to go for a little walk.  I went to a state park which allows dogs – there aren’t too many around here.  They have some great hiking trails!

We arrived early – hey, I’m no fool, it’s still July and hot here.  But we no sooner started out on our walk, when Finn kept looking behind us.  She turned her head around maybe three times, and then just decided to turn back and head to the car.  Who am I to argue?  So, after a quick tick check, we get back in and go.

I didn’t want it to be just a boring old day, so I had an idea!

Soon, Finn took notice.

And then the whining to play began!  I let the pool fill up a bit, and then it was playtime!  You’ve seen Finn in our pool before, so I’ll spare the photo details.  Except for this one.   When she’s splashing in the water, she tries to catch it with her mouth – I think I was able to capture it here.

Now, I’m hoping a certain someone doesn’t read this blog too soon.  I had some trouble emptying the pool, and I flooded the woodchips.  Uh oh.  Can you tell?  I think I am going to head back out there and do some fixing.  Finn, don’t tell Daddy.

Hope you all are still keeping cool!