May 3rd The Weekend Gone Awry

So, as this picture indicates, it was a bit of a 'wash' for the weekend. It started raining Saturday at 5am and continued until afternoon Sunday. I don't mean a panzy little dribble of a rain, I'm talking Noah should have been building his ark in my sideyard sort of rain. So no hikes, no bikejor, but I did give Princess her bath and grooming... It lasted maybe one hour?

She did not like standing in the tub for about 30 minutes while I shampooed, rinsed and shampooed, dabbed her face, rubbed her paws, deep rinse and rinse again, but she got to eat a few treats while under duress, so she endured the abuse. One thing she thought was awesome was the rub-down. Oh but she loves towels! She got all excited, spun around and around trying to catch my hands in the towel, trying to chew the towel, trying to play peek a boo with the towel. It was a great game for her! For me... well one wiggly wet puppy managed to get me thoroughly soaked from head to toe. At least after her shampoo I smelled like oat enriched puppy shampoo rather than wet dog.

Then was the grooming, the time spent meticulously brushing, de-shedding, brushing, petting, de-shedding, and brushing ensured she was a beautiful pristine white and gray with black guard hairs, and soft heartmelting brown eyes. She was gorgeous and she knew it! She pranced around the house, making sure every puppy and adult dog sniffed noses with her. Unfortunately it was wet out, and wet means mud in these parts. You can see Moondancer modeling her latest fashion in mud facials, only she thought if it worked on her face, why not the whole body?

Xena too thought it was a great idea. Ah well, back to bathing Princess again once I got her away from the influence of those two.

Meanwhile the waters continued to rise, and alarmed I ended up confining the dogs to the back porch and those we washed, to the house. I stood vigil all day Saturday on the fence and more than half the day Sunday until the waters began to recede. It was a close call, but even my orchard I planted last month survived intact. I'm glad we decided to put the fence up the burm instead of down along the river bank as we originally had planned. Hopefully the crud in the runoff won't kill my trees after-the-fact, but they lived being submerged under 5+ feet of water for more than 24 hours, quite respectable.