The Pain of Rain

We're not sure Jan appreciates how much effort it is for we 3 woofies to walk her several times a day. But we care about her, so rain or shine, in sickness or in health, we make sure she is well-exercised daily. We take her on long walks, stopping to eat acorns or take a pre-pee sniff. We pull in 3 different directions to give her arms and back a good stretch. Thanks to us, she should be in excellent shape.

But we realize no matter what we do for her, she will never be content. Just always complaining.

Last year she complained all summer that because of the drought we've been in for several years, we had no lawn. Only weeds. Which she was forever swinging at with a weed chopper.

This spring we've had rain, rain and more rain. And did we ever have a lawn! But was she happy? Nooooooo! She complained she had to go out in the rain every day to swing the weed chopper at the tall grass. We thought it was great having such a lush dining table so we could graze outside and hurl inside.

After rain, before mowing






And then last week we had a sunny Thursday. A friend dropped off a lawn mower and Jan shaved our lush dining table. We cried at our loss. Jan moaned and complained about how much her whole body hurt because the tall grass was so hard to push a mower over. We barked at everything -- kids, bikes, cars -- on our walks to drown her out. We couldn't get her moving faster than a crawl.

After mowing




We thought she would do better after a day or two, but we didn't realize there wouldn't be any place for her to sit down at the car show to benefit the Humane Society on Saturday. When she finally got home, we were so excited to see her we rushed her right out the door and up the street.

Did she appreciate it? Well, let's just say we wished we were wearing ear plugs. She moaned and groaned and barely moved. No, don't pull! Stop yanking! Slow down! Stop! Don't move! Get back here! U-turn, let's go home!

We really felt unappreciated. And yesterday was the same. Today is another rainy day, so not only did she move "in reverse," she refused to walk through big puddles, so our walk was even shorter. We haven't been able to take her on a proper walk since last Wednesday. And she needs the exercise!

At first we considered trading her in for a newer model human. But we decided we'll give her another chance.

Mainly because we felt kind of sorry for her when her friend called after she got back from the benefit yesterday and said he will be dropping off the lawn mower again early this week because more rain is coming (it's here!) and his little mower can't handle tall grass. Her side of the conversation consisted of, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" So he's going to bring his riding mower instead.

Looks like we'll all be on comfort alert for .... however long it takes her to recover. It better be soon or we'll have to start training her to walk properly on a leash all over again.

Sheeesh, a dog's work is never done!

(s) Buddy, Merci & Samaritan

PS -- The woofies aren't the only ones on comfort alert. We kitties have been waiting longer (and patiently) for our food and spending more time sitting on Jan so she won't fall out of the chair. So we're a big help too!

But, oh, dear, Jaaaaaan, it's time to clean the litter pans! Nooooooooooow!

(s) Crystal, Cotton, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron & Rusty