End of Summer Activities
As August draws to a close, the pace of life here has not slowed any. Our litter has been with us three weeks already but it seems like only yesterday that Emma gave birth. All the pups are thriving.
Visitors are starting to be scheduled and come over. Other life events are unfolding…
Barb and I have had a little disagreement over the use of the backyard pool and the dogs. They love to swim, but they have no regard for how dirty they are before they enter the water. Barb works hard to keep the pool crystal clear. And I can see her frustration when one jumps in and leaves a brown dirt cloud behind in the water. So we thought of a nice compromise. We purchased a small plastic pool/tub for the puppies to use when they got bigger. After our daily runs, the dogs come home filthy from rolling in the mud and whatever smells bad on the fields. So now before we go in the house, I just fill the smaller pool and the dogs get clean as well as cooled off. And everyone is content after being toweled off; Barb, the girls, and myself.
Notice how progressively dirtier the water becomes.
Two days ago our humble backyard was the scene of an advertising shoot. Our neighbor, Theresa, and her captain of Operations (our son, Brian) have a fine jewelry business. Their company is called “One Pearl” after the philosophy of transforming a life as a result of their charity donations. Go to their website for a more complete view of their mission and products. In fact, they donate a good portion of their profits to charity causes that Theresa finds dear to her heart. The advertising company decided to to use our backyard setting, our daughter Kristen and her friend Emma, and a puppy. The weather that day was magnificent, and as you can see from the photos, the supporting cast and background was excellent. We wish their campaign much success. Thank you Graham for these excellent photographs of the shoot!
The pups are doing very well. I can’t believe I have been sleeping on the basement cot for already three weeks. Theresa is also our stand in midwife to help Barb when I am not around.
She was kind enough to babysit while we went to Boston yesterday to visit 3 of our four children who happened to be in the same place for the day. Kristen had plenty of puppy hugs before she went back to Boston.
We are down to one unassigned puppy. We hope to finalize that new home soon. One new behavior that I haven’t seen much before has been the pups howling at night before they settle down to sleep.
Emma and Mulder have been bred together before, but this seems a somewhat new activity. When one starts, several of the others follow suit. Although their volume is not loud, this vocal behavior must hearken back to some deep seated ancestry from their wolf origins. After a minute or two, it is over, and everyone lays down and drifts off to a peaceful sleep.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that today is our wedding anniversary . 35 years seems to be an awfully big number to get my thoughts around. As far as how we will spend it, well let me say that 35 years ago on this day, if I was asked what we would be doing 35 years from now, I would never have imagined to be spending my day doing.. a colonoscopy prep. Yuck.
Still..
Happy Anniversary Barb! I am very glad you said yes so many years ago.