Summer Dogs

I haven't written much about the dogs lately. Maddie needs to be groomed - she's got that woolly girl look going on. Of the four dogs, she's the only one who is smart enough to lay on the tile floor or go to the basement where it's cooler. Heck, even I've considered it when those menopausal surges come upon me.

Kobe - dear boy is the sweetest old boy ever. He is the revered senior here. Often when company comes the doesn't even come down stairs anymore. He loves his corner with his butt against the vent. In the winter it's his personal heater, and in the some his personal air conditioner. He eats like a champ, naps most the day, he gets assisted down the stairs. Life is good. Oh, he can get down them with out us. Down is not the issue, stopping at the bottom is!

Hammerin Hank is great - I almost hate to write that for fear of jinxing it. You should hear him yip his way across the yard. So much excitement in a blurr of white and lemon fur. I do wish I could reset his alarm clock about an hour or so. Hanks day starts at 5-5:30am. My day does not. But whence he used to howl in his crate at that time, now he catapults himself into bed with us. There is nothing quite like a pointer full to the brim with AM energy. Eventually one of us grows tired of the poky nose and wiggle butt. We walk downstairs on sleepy feet and let him out to enjoy the yard. Hank is happy to play in the yard until we are happy to great the day at a more reasonable hour.

Mick finds as many things to hunt in the summer as most dogs do during upland game season. He has posed in the most stunning of points while hunting a bee pollinating the flowers. And, he never hesitates to go for the kill of the bee either. And who knows what little bugs are under the shrubs? Mick's personal mission is to hunt them down and dig them out. And, the tomato patch must be his tropical jungle. I can always tell when he's been nosing in there by the chlorophyll on his schnozzle.

Best of all is when you see one of the dogs sitting in the yard content to watch the neighborhood. They look so wise, so beautiful, so "this is my place and I love it". Ahhh, to be so content.