March 11, 2008
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I Think Male Dogs are Like Teenage Boys!
I said I would report on Baron’s bath to try to get rid of that musky smell that all dogs get. It was NOT fun. He just hates getting into the bathtub and will shake for a while after you do manage to get him into it. He kept trying to get out but I am more determined to get rid of that smell than he will submit to at first. He does eventually settle down and submit but you can tell he isn’t fond of having all that water going over his body. I didn’t make it too warm but I also didn’t want it too cool since it IS still winter and it was cool out. Too cool to let him go outside to shake and dry off, anyway.
After shampooing him and using a creme rinse on him, I dried him off as well as I could before letting him out of the bathroom. He then proceeded to run around like a nut, shaking himself every few feet but he was pretty dry after my toweling him down. That’s one nice thing about dobermans, they are very short-haired so it’s a simple dry off for them.
He definitely smelled 1000% better. I washed the blanket we keep on the loveseat that we let him lay down on when we are sitting there. Otherwise, he’s not allowed up on it. But the blanket smelled as much as he had. I didn’t want him picking up the odor when he was clean. He actually haunted the washer and then the dryer until the blanket was ready to be put back. I had a fight on my hands trying to get it back in place since he wanted on the loveseat as soon as an edge of the blanket was on it. When I finally managed to get it on after I made him sit and stay, he jumped up, and laid down on it with a sigh. I sat down to watch some tv and he put his head on my lap and proceeded to go to sleep.
Yesterday we had a wonderfully warm day so he spent a lot of time out in the back yard. The dog next door was out also and the two of them kept trotting back and forth along the common part of the fence and did their doggy communication yips, barks and various other sounds. They both wanted to be out and running all over the place together but it was not to be.
Later on in the afternoon, I took Baron for a leisurely walk around the circle. He wanted out in the yard when we got back to the house so I let him out and watched him running around the yard, tossing a branch in the air and catching it. He would lay down, gnaw on it for a bit then go run after another branch he had dragged back there. He’s got one that is almost a sapling that he loves to drag around the yard. He’ll drop it every once in a while and bark at it, jump back like it was attempting to bite him and then he’ll attack it, shake it around and run with it in his mouth like a trophy. It’s that behavior that makes me think he is like a teenage boy. That plus the fact that, after just a short time, maybe an hour at most, he came into the house and he smelled all musky again. Now if THAT isn’t like a teenage boy (they get that aroma after any physical activity). I could have just screamed. All that effort for one day of having a dog that didn’t stink like, well, like dog. Oh well. C’est la vie!
The Beast called me a little bit ago to tell me he is leaving today to start home. He is, however, going to take a leisurely trip back and stop to spend the night somewhere in Georgia. He wants to stop in TyTy to pick up a couple Mount Morency cherry trees. We need two more to complete the cherry tree triangles we started (we have three planned and two are not complete until we have those). I forget exactly how it works but the three are necessary in order for them to be able to make cherries. They are pollinators for one or the other. We will have Bing, Black and Mount Morency (which is a sour cherry and the one most commonly used for cherry pies).
I took a little walk around our properties to check out how the peach, pear and plum trees were doing and we have a couple of the different peach trees blooming and you can see the pear and plum are getting ready to do so. The apple probably won’t bloom for a few more weeks but the buds have started to appear. I think we will have fruit this year. Last year a late freeze and high winds destroyed most of the blooms on the peach trees and the other fruits were still too young and hadn’t established themselves well enough. This year is looking good so far. I may be canning fruits this year.
I sent away for something they have been advertising on TV and I’m sure you’ve seen it. It’s a hanging basket (?) for growing tomatoes or other veggies in that is supposed to help them grow bigger and have less waste. I had thought to myself *I wonder if that would really work?* and then the Beast saw it and said, *Let’s send for one and give it a try.* So I did. It hasn’t arrived yet (and I got 2 for 1 when I ordered it) but I am really anxious to see how it works. We already have a couple shepherd’s hooks that we can use for them so we will get them planted and up as soon as the package arrives. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Since the Beast is going to be home by tomorrow in the early afternoon, I have to finish cleaning up all the stuff that needs shredding today. It needs to be put out in the garbage today anyway since pickup is tomorrow morning (very early). So, I’m going to get back to it and see if I can’t get it all done.
Have a great day everyone. Smile at someone today and start a chain reaction. Love you all.
