June 18, 2010

• Wouldn’t you like to take a bath, right about now, in Chip’s bathtub?

                       

  Doesn’t it look cool and inviting?

  Let me tell you….it IS! Cool because it is spring water, clear and fresh.

                      

  Inviting…well, when it is 96 degrees outside with unrelenting sunshine, what could possibly be more inviting? Not your lukewarm, chlorine-saturated swimming pool, nosirree. Not for me!

  Chip, either. He fairly bounded (even though he is 80) out of the back of my truck and high-tailed it to the water.

                     

  He had a fresh haircut, compliments of our resident doggy-barber, the Farmboy, who is ever so deft with the clippers.

  And now all he needed was a good shampoo and rinse, to be fresh and clean and ready to take on just about anything.

  Chip only gets baths in warm weather, and he only gets them in natural bathtubs. This dog is not made for indoor plumbing…he’s the outdoors, natural type.

  Just show him a creek or a river or the lake, and he’s ready to be scrubbed. He loves the lathering part, and he tolerates the rinsing, even when I duck his head under to get the soap off.

                       

  And then comes the fun part…chasing sticks! Chip may be 80, but he can still dog-paddle with the best of ‘em, yes, indeedy.

  Now, about being 80…how did I arrive at that figure? Chip’s birthday was June 1, and it was the 11th time we had celebrated. It just so happened that our favorite dog-lover-extraordinaire was with us at that time. Miss Emma explained (for she has studied these things and she knows) that dogs age the equivalent of ten human years in their first year of life. And for every subsequent year, they gain seven more….so, if I did my math correctly, that means Chip is 80. But just give him a bath and he feels like a spring chicken again….

  Speaking of chickens, would you like to see how the twins are faring? Remember that we had triplets? Unfortunately, that status did not last long. It’s a sad tale, and I’ll let Delbert share it someday. Anyway, where once there were three…there are now two.

                        

  But aren’t they cute? I haven’t had the nerve to tell Minnie that “I don’t think they are hers!” If looks mean anything, I believe these chix hatched from Clara’s eggs.

              

  This is Clara. Beautiful girl, but not quite mature enough for motherhood…and since Minnie felt the urge to set, here we are. Adoption is fine in this family.

  Say, do you remember Salty, Pepper and Corny? They seem to be survivors. First they survived the girls’ hugs and squeezes, and now they have survived the move from the back porch to the henhouse and yard. I sort of hold my breath and wonder when a chicken hawk is going to zoom in on the little white one….Salty stands out plainly for all predators to see. But, so far, so good…they hide so well under the bushes that I can’t even get a decent picture of them!

            

  Hope y’all find a nice, cool natural bathtub to dip in this weekend, if you’re so inclined. Chip and I’ll prob’ly go back tomorrow…daily baths seem to be necessary this time of year…

  • 10:10 pm
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