I think many of you on the East Coast know what I’m talking about.
We have had days and days of heavy rain and it has been AWFUL. Between the mud and the sloshing, and the wet sheep……..I’ve had enough. Sadly, we are looking at getting the remnants of Tropical Storm Joaquin this weekend, as well.
The worst part of all of it is how damp and gross it makes the house – and cars – feel. And that’s even worse when you have several large, furry animals pooping everywhere.
Yes, pooping.
First, Cini and Lucy still hate the leash, and though they’ve agreed that they’ll pee when we walk them, pooping is still “optional”.
Anyone want to hazard a guess where they end up pooping instead?
The living room. The kitchen. The hallway.
So, picture going out to feed the sheep and sinking to nearly your knees in mud and poop, and then coming back in all wet and gross to find a pile of more poop in the house!
And it’s not just the house!!!
I took Orzo for his pre-neuter well-check this week. Paul suggested I take his car to save on gas instead of the truck.
“Just put a blanket down in the back”, he said.
I did, and off we went.
It’s about a 40 minute drive to Dr. Grover’s office, down a lot of winding country roads.
We got about 10 minutes into our trip, past the parts of the route where there are plenty of turn offs and stopping spots, when the smell hit.
I quickly realized we had poop, and frantically began searching for a safe place to stop.
There weren’t any.
To make matters worse, Orzo was moving around an awful lot in the back – squishing and spreading it – and THEN. Then he jumped over the seats and onto Oona in the backseat.
I managed to find a place finally to pull over and assess the damage. He had, in fact, spread it all over. You know how a lot of cars have cargo mats in the back? Those grooved things that are IMPOSSIBLE to clean?
Yeah. All ground in.
While I was trying to clean it as best as I could, cursing and yelling, a lovely gentleman wandered down from the road I had pulled off onto. As it turns out, he’s from Yorkshire, England, and used to train Border Collies for sheepdog trials. He seemed to know everyone in the county, and when I told him about our recent drama, he really wanted to know who this person was threatening to shoot our dogs. I wish I knew with certainty so I could have told him. Just like many others, he reminded me having the dogs running about is a good thing, considering all the recent coyote sightings and attacks.
Small world, eh?
He helped me out a bit and sent me off on a very smelly ride to the vet.
Orzo is perfectly healthy and got his boosters, etc, so he can be ready for his neutering on the 12th.
Then it was another smelly ride home, with me desperately trying to keep his 75 lb self from jumping into my lap all the way home.
Oona and I emerged from the Prius into the rain, grumpy, covered in fur, with poop smears all over.
Paul spent the next 3 hours cleaning his car. He stripped it down to the bare metal to clean it.
Not even kidding here!
It is for times like this I’d really like to have a mudroom with a dog shower and floor drain.
For now we are doing our best to keep the dogs walked and happy, and I’ve been moving Sabine and Orzo’s tethers as much as I can so they don’t sit in one spot too long.
But I really, really need this rain to let up. It’s getting waterlogged out there, and I can’t get any real yarn dyeing accomplished when nothing wants to dry out.
I HAVE seen some lovely beginnings of fall color, though, and that’s a good thing.
Tagged: Farm, Pets
