Mud

(This photo was taken when I was younger,

and I had to have a bath afterwards)

We have been absent from blogging and mud is one of the reasons. It is winter here in Auckland, and it has rained so much that you can see where we run around our back yard.

My human spends her time trying to catch us, wiping our feet, washing the floor, washing all the towels she uses to clean us with and sighing a lot!  She says if she had dogs that always lived outdoors, or self-cleaning cats (with small feet) she wouldn't have this problem. She also says if she lived in a big house with a "mud room" or a maid she wouldn't have this problem.

When Enzo and I go outside the rain water and clay squelches up between our toes and sticks to our fur. 

(Enzo with just a hint of mud on his back legs!)

 

 (Enzo's feet sinking into the mud in our back yard - he tries

to look innocent, but I know better)

(Mum's gumboots sinking into the mud and surface water)

When we play and chase each other around the back yard the mud covers us. Mum can't keep us on short leashes all the time. There are times we need to visit the garden to do our business and we also find interesting puddles on our walks, so she has put huge mats by the doors (inside and outside) for us to wipe our feet. She is constantly telling us walk in circles on these mats or to stand still while she dries us with towels (that we try to steal off her which is another fun game!), but sometimes all her rubbing does is work the mud into our fur. One of us usually manages to escape the towel like Enzo did in the photo below.

 (Did I kick mud onto Enzo's face?)

(Enzo's front paws)

Mum also laughs when we try to cover her clothes with paw prints. She says if she didn't laugh she would cry, so she cleans up after us and then the next time we come inside she just laughs at our paw prints. Sometimes she leaves some of our prints on the floors until tomorrow, rather than vacuuming carpet and washing floors more than once a day!  

 (Surrounded by paw prints - our floors had already

been washed once on the day this photo was taken)

Now we know that there are people who would be horrified to have paw prints on their floors (so wouldn't let their dogs inside), and they may find it hard to look at these photos as they would be compelled to wash the floors four or five times a day if we were their dogs, but I think our mum has realised it is better to have two dogs who make her smile lots and for her to spend time doing nice things with us (like going for walks and playing games) than spending all her spare time cleaning the floors. Plus she knows Spring will be here soon!

Woofs,

Riley