DOG DAYS OF SUMMER
I swear my dog is telepathic. Seriously. This dog can transmit her feelings like waves crashing against a shoreline. Lying on the floor, head between paws, eyes huge and intense, she stares at me. Before I am even aware that she has plopped herself down in ‘transmit mode’, I feel her presence. She directs the full measure of her craving-of-the-moment in my direction; her transmission ricochets off and then boomerangs back. She can not, will not, be ignored. I pull my eyes away from my book. “What now?” “Are you bored, AGAIN?” “Bloody Hell dog!”. “Stop staring at me!” Yes, we’ve hit the dog days of summer. How does one find ways to amuse a house-bound canine in the heat and humidity of an Arizona late summer.
The sidewalks simmer and there is close to no shade. The pavement is at least 25 degrees hotter than the air temperatures, and Lizzie's little tummy is less than six inches from the ground. Going for a walk in plus 100-degree temps is more than uncomfortable, it can be dangerous. And since 5:00am--the perfect time to be out and about-- is simply not acknowledged by my brain as a reasonable time for humans to be out of bed, Lizzie and I are relegated to either playing games indoors, or waiting until sundown to walk to the park to join our other heat-dazed, dog-owning neighbors for a bit of doggie meet&greet play time.
But, 7:00pm is a long way off. So, in my desperation to read a book in peace, I drew on my childhood for inspiration. Remember when your Mum used to let you build summer tents in the house made out of sheets and blankets draped over and attached to dining chairs and tables? Remember the efforts made to stave off childish boredom from being stuck indoors because of summer rainstorms or miserable humidity and mosquitoes? Well, keeping that in mind, here's what my house looks like now. A doggie amusement park. That's an agility tunnel running under and around my dining-room table, and a agility table (for a "go table", "down&wait") off to one side - what you can't see is the rest of the canine amusement-park mess: the toys, bones, the crate, touch stick, the bags of training treats, and a bench placed infront of a window for her viewing pleasure. Now that I think about it, being a dog around here just isn't so bad. And.. before I forget... we start a "tricks" class tonight !! No matter what we do or don't learn, it's something to do indoors (at PetsMart, her favorite place), and the homework assigments should keep her entertained and maybe, if I get really lucky, might tire out her busy brain ! Her nap time = my reading time! Just like having a toddler again.
