Washing dogs!!!

I wake up in time this morning. Big surprise there, somehow I’d figured I wouldn’t manage it, but I do and stumble out of bed to throw the dogs out of the cabin. Since I finished my read “Death Angel” by Linda Howard yesterday morning, I’m back to rereads. (Darn it, I knew I should have stretched it out a little more, but as is so often the case when I’ve got a good read, I have this uncontrollable urge to finish it ASAP.)

So, now I’m rereading an older book by Carla Neggers, “The Harbor”. A good book, by any means, even though it misses that climactic feel to it, but it will do for the next couple of days, I guess.

Once I’ve got my daily dose of reading in, I head to the house and go through the normal routines before settling down for the daily edit. Since we’ve decided that today is going to be a semi-rest day, we don’t really push it. Only two pages get done because YES dog-washing day has arrived! Yay.

The wind is still blowing, but the sun is much warmer today, allowing for rapid drying time when the dogs are washed.

An hour earlier than usual, we put our computers away, and I change into old sweats to head on over to the pool. The wind has been blowing somewhat fierce for the past 30 hours or so, so for the first ten minutes I’m using the pool sieve to remove nature’s debris from the water.

That done, I grab the pesticides-designed to treat dogs for ticks and fleas-and throw two bottles in the knee high water. The pink liquid turns white the moment it hits the water in the pool and fizzes somewhat alarmingly.
I mix it all together and then start calling for my dogs-very sweetly, or course-to come and join me.

About three of them (they’re not the smartest lot, by any means, unlike most of the others they haven’t guessed what’s going to happen yet) come dashing up the stairs to see what’s up. I quickly slam the door shut, before they know what’s going on.
Mosha goes in first, enduring the dunking with little complaints since she is familiar with swimming. Dax, on the other hand acts as if I’ve thrown him through the alligators, and Knight II…well, the water barely comes to his knees, hah, and I need to step into the water myself to douse him with the grayish liquid.

Slowly, but steadily, with my clothes rapidly gathering more water, one by one the pack is paraded into the pool.
Some dash into the water head first-in particular the Labradors, cockers and retrievers, who love the water so much that they don’t even notice the pungent odor.

Some go in semi-voluntarily, like my Basset Chaos who looks at me haughtily when I call him and then lazily slides into the water because he knows that I’ll throw him in if he doesn’t. I can almost hear his commentary to the hassle. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t drop your panties, boss. I’m going. See? No sweat?” Arrogant mutt! Hah.

After Chaos, there are some dogs that need to be led firmly and then some actually need to be tossed, because otherwise there would be no way in hell to get them wet. Seriously, some of them are so agile that they’ll spread eagle, just to stay out of the water.

All in all, it is a messy business, but since it is a joined effort from all the humans, we get more than ninety dogs washed, dunked and then out of the courtyard running again, in less than an hour!

I know, it surprised me too, but it wasn’t as disastrous as I figured it would be while we were working our way to towards this particular day. Back when we were still contemplating the chore, I thought it was going to take us at least three hours.
Imagine my surprise when suddenly big brother shouts at me to stop shouting “next” because we’re done.

We take about fifteen minutes to check if we’ve really gone through the entire list, but we have, all dogs on the paper have a check mark and they’re all soaking wet while storming up and down the mountain with exhausting exuberance.

By the time I exit the pool, more than ready to hit the shower to get rid of the foul smelling stuff that literally covers me from top to bottom, I can’t help but laugh at the majority of my personal pack: Almost all of them (minus the Labradors) are snoozing on the porch of my cabin, obviously putting as much distance between them and the pool. Cowards! Hah.

We don’t really mind finding out that the tile floor of the house is soaked as well from the multitude of wet bodies traversing back and forth…the ticks were constantly crawling everywhere nonetheless, but it does make navigating through the jubilant pack somewhat tricky.

I make a beeline for the shower and return only to head straight for the courtyard to tackle today’s laundry. I’m barely done when it’s time to head for my cabin. Since today is a day away from work, big brother, little brother and I have decided to take the car out to the woods so we can do a short experimental jog.

We’ve been thinking about that particular exercise for a while now, and since today the weather is absolutely perfect for it, we don’t want to postpone it any longer.
Dressed in sneakers and sweats we depart, driving towards the familiar path high up the mountain and park so we can do some warm ups.

It is really a rather humorous event, especially since little brother plays the joker, (does he ever! Gawd the guy gave me the giggles at some point, forcing me to stop just to catch my breath) but also because basically we have never actually run for any reason other than necessity. Still, it is an excellent form of exercise that can be handy too, so we figure we might as well try it.

Hmmm. Well, for a first jog I am not surprised that we go about half a mile before we are out of breath. Hah. I’m actually kind of proud that I even manage that much. While the brothers both always have been athletic, I struggled with obesity since the age of seven, so basically I haven’t run since I was a kid.
In that regard, I do bloody awesome, I’m thinking…especially when I find out that a full run, rather than a jog, goes so much better. Apparently, I’ve a need for speed. Hah.

The best part is that my knees don’t hurt during the run, which always was a problem for me. I’ve found that there is a huge difference when you’re not carrying around an extra sixty pounds.
Sure, I might not have kept up the pace, but I did manage to keep both brothers in sight throughout the exercise, and for a first time that leaves me pretty pleased with myself.

After we return to the car we do some cool off exercises such as stretches and basically all the things I usually do when I do a kickboxing work out. The way I figure, if you’re training the lower body, you’ve got to do the upper body too. It’s all about balance.

I do wonder how sore I’m going to be tomorrow. Running is completely alien to this body, so it might be very bad. Hah.

Once we get home, little sister has dinner waiting. Spaghetti and a fresh tomato/vegetable sauce with a rich helping of cheese: Carbs, vitamins and protein, just what a tired body needs after spending a lot of energy. We literally stuff ourselves with the meal and feel remarkably revived afterwards.

For the remainder of the evening we take it easy. I spend several hours mending bed sheets while “Medium” is on; followed by a recorded episode of “The Closer” and finish up by the time the evening draws to an end. No extra editing session today, which is nice for a change.

The ol’ body is complaining a little when I finally depart for my cabin to feed the dogs and do another relaxing read of the latest book. But it’s not a bad feeling on the overall. It is doing what it’s designed for after all. And besides, being tired from actually doing stuff is so much better than being tired for no reason at all. Hah.