Tags

, , , ,

I love my dogs. They are simultaneously loving, frustrating and fun. They are bundles of energy, noisy when I want them to be quiet and they never let me sleep in. The little girl, my muse, Cassie, would happily sleep the day away with me provided no cats or dogs pass the house. But Cody, the new kid on the block, doesn’t believe in relaxing. He is rarely still, constantly on the move with nervous energy, and as soon as he has decided it’s time to get up he jumps onto my bed and starts pawing at my head.

“Come on mum, get up. Come on, come on, come on…” Until his relentless persistence has me out of bed, not functioning but definitely out of bed.

Clearly this is only an issue on the weekend. Weekdays we are up by 5.30am but on a weekend, occasionally I’d like to sleep past 7.00am. This is not an option for Cody. I can ignore the pawing but the running around the house and in and out of the dog door is noisy and annoying. So I do my best to convince him to cuddle up to Cassie and I as we attempt to sleep in.

We are now at that time in Canberra when the spring heat arrives. I had let Cassie grow a thick winter coat to insulate her from the transition from sub-tropical Queensland to the chill of a Canberra winter. Cody’s coat wasn’t long or so I thought.

I had held off and held off sending them to the doggie hairdresser but the time had arrived. Both were struggling with the daytime temperatures restricting walks on the weekend to the early mornings – another impediment to my sleep ins.

Cody is a pet rescue dog who came to us with a few hang-ups and did not like being handled. Patting was very welcome but touching his feet or brushing took some time. He is happy now for me to pick him up, cuddle him and brush him but is very dubious and scared of other people handling him. So like a mum sending her first child to their first day of school I left him with the groomers with some trepidation.  I now feel quite sorry for the (very) young girl who took my babies for a clip as she was given a very long list of do’s and don’ts. And like every good mum I turned up twenty minutes early only to find out they were running very late! That’s okay I got to watch both dogs getting clipped and make sure they were handled with love.

I’ve taken some before and after shots.

 

 

They were happy to sit for plenty of photos with stacks of wool on them but once trimmed it was like holding a slippery fish. As soon as I went for the shot they moved. Cody is like an excited dolphin, running and leaping, rolling in the grass, rubbing his body against the lounge and rolling on his back on the carpet. Anything he can rub his skin on he is willing to do it. I think it’s a new thing for him to be cut back so close to his skin.  I imagine it must be tingling now that all the matting has gone.

Cassie is more relaxed but surprisingly still finding it too hot for walks. You would like that after losing close to 3 kilos in wool she would feel free and liberated yet she is finding walks harder in the heat now than when she had wool. I’m finding this difficult to deal with given she is a dog from the sub-tropics.

 

So the good life this week? Watching my dogs play and enjoy themselves.