On my way to work this morning, I stopped by the community garden to do some weeding and fertilizing. Spiffing the plot up, you know, for tomorrow's ceremony. ;)
At work, it didn't take long to finish up the Year 3 alphabetizing. While I was working, my daughter-in-law called to ask if she could bring their Rottweiler over to our house. They had workers doing things with machinery in the front yard, and it was driving the dog apeshit. I told her to take him on over. When I finished my work, I went by their house, both to see the work and to pick up the dog, if they hadn't already taken him to my house. She had not taken the dog, so I volunteered to take him.
Have you ever tried to get an old, arthritic, 160-pound Rottweiler in the front seat of a Jeep Wrangler?
My D-i-L took hold of his right hind leg, and I took hold of his left, and we managed to get his hind feet on the running board. He took it from there, but we had to push.
It was a tight squeeze.
While we were trying to get Axel in the front seat, his dog-mate, Buck the Pitt Bull, jumped in the back seat and would not get out. My D-i-L tricked him out by offering him a ride in her car.
I had the top down on the Wrangler and was a little worried that Axel would jump out or fall out. He would not sit down and stood, wobbling sideways, with his nose out the window and his anus firmly lodged against my right shoulder, all the way home.
The first thing he did when he got out of the Jeep was pee on my flowers.
When I said, "Ok, let's go inside," he ran right to the front door and just about broke it down trying to get in, like he lives here. He ran straight to the kitchen; I sent him straight out to the back porch. Gave him a bowl of water. Told him to lie down and behave. He's snoozing now, snoring and moaning. Too much excitement for one day, I reckon.
I left work so early because they had not brought down Year 4. I guess I could've waited.....
Nah.
* * * * * * * *
After Axel settled in, I told him to be a good boy and gathered up my gardening supplies. I was already in the Jeep to drive down to Nanny's when I thought about what Axel might get into while I was gone. There was an old bag of chocolate-covered dried cranberries on the kitchen table. I went back in the house and put everything away. Went back to the garden. Fertilized the tomatoes. Tilled up a row and planted the okra. Mowed Nanny's back yard. Came home to find a fast-food wrapper torn up in the floor. No clue where he found it. He may have learned to work the pedal that raises the kitchen garbage can lid. If so, I'm surprised he didn't go back for the stale cinnamon rolls I tossed this morning.
I showered off the chiggers and dust and decided to shave my legs since I'll probably wear shorts to the community garden ceremony tomorrow. This is impossible to do in the shower without hacking my skin to pieces, and my deep, soaking tub is a death trap for an old lady, so when the weather is warm, as it is today, I shave my legs in a big plastic bowl on the back porch, where I can actually see what I'm doing.
As I was running water in the bowl, Axel jumped up and ran to the sink.
"Thirsty, huh?"
I'd already given him some water when we first got home. He would drink a gallon if his parents would let him, but they don't, because he drinks it fast and then pukes it up. I ran a cup of water for him and poured it in his bowl on the porch. He lapped it up, and then when I came outside with my bowl of warm water, he stuck his face in it. I told him, "No! Mine!" He backed off, slobbering all down my leg, and when I stuck my foot in the bowl, he snorted and gave me a genuine WTF look, still dribbling slobber.
If only he could talk, eh?
He's spending all of next week at my house, unless the kids' plans change. I can hardly wait.
Not.
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