Dog Days of Summer

It's short of amazing how time just slips away... months have gone by and without a post to this thread. Not too long ago I'd received an unwanted present of my hard disk crashing resulting in the loss of data, namely pictures... many of which were of this furry pair in their escapades.

The summer of 2009 has been a wonderful passing. These two Russell's have become best of friends. It's quite common now to see them snuggled together engaging in one of Chaps favorite activities of grooming Pea by licking the inside of her ears for what seems like hours at a time. She really seems to enjoy it as her eyes close and she relaxes her head as if a wonderful massage is taking place as she slowly falls to sleep.

They've often found themselves caught up in the pack of Jennifer and John's four hounds as they drop by the house for a romp in our backyard. There's an occasional spat as these little dogs seem to have the little man's complex of over compensating with the need to show dominance in lieu of their height. Daisy, a larger bird dog often jumps in and interrupts the game of chase just to keep things from getting out of hand. It's not all the Russells, it's the Basenji and the Westie, they seem to find ways to get in each others face. And it's now the rarer than the common as the summer draws on, for spats and tisses to arise.

While playing in our back yard last week Rocket, the Westie was having so much fun with this little blue rubber ball. He'd dug a hole large enough to hold his body and was wallowing round in the dirt with the ball. We'd filled a large tub with water for the dogs to take ease from the heat and Rocket seemed to enjoy the tub the most. It was comical to watch as he dropped the ball into the tub and then jumped right in and splashed about as he bobbed for the little blue ball. Back and forth he traversed between the mud hole and tub, at times he was soaked from head to toe and looked like a chocolate covered doggie.

To the side of my yard and just before my fence is a patch of shrubs that unfortunately have become overgrown. JD and Larry, Johns dad and uncle named this place the clubhouse as the dogs often congregate there. When all gets quiet and none to be seen, you can bet they are playing games in the clubhouse. We've enjoyed watching them as they play games of chase, Taco is always in the lead. The visual of the Basenji running is so effortless yet so quick, he reminds me of the comical Pepe Le Pew as he pursues his true loves escape. His head is erect and looking around and his chest is pushed forward and all of his legs appear straight, as if he's just standing there looking around. But instead of standing, he's flying around the yard with all of the others gasping with their tongues flailing about, barking and cutting corners to try to get close.

One of our favorite escapes of the heat in summer is the lake not too far from our house. Today was one of those days where the temperature was 92 degrees and hardly a cloud in the sky. We have this little cove that's our favorite, it's tucked away just across from the marina. The cove is quiet and littered with rocks and trees. It doesn't take take long to get the vests on the pooches, they're pumped up and romping as they know what we're all about to do. While standing on the platform at end back of the boat, Chap's emotions run high as he is barking as if to tell us to hurry because he wants to dive in and play. I'd hardly entered the water and was still trying to get situated when the splash of Chap's eagerness occurred... moments later he gave me a nice back scratching while climbing upon my raft.