APRIL 2020

Rain, rain and more rain.  An oversea trip to stay in my chic chien shack has not improved the weather, the rain continues to fall.   Luckily my luxurious fur coat is fairly shower proof as it has been severely tested recently.  The Mrs is almost unrecognisable in her wet weather gear with only a ghostly face visible inside her hood.  Her hibernation instinct has come to the fore and the Boss has a devil of a job extricating her from the house.  I have more success persuading her to come for walkies to the lake where she can fossick about clearing debris from the spillways and streams and ensuring water flows in the direction it should.  When she gets too enthusiastic it usually ends in disaster.... wet knees, wet feet or falling flat on her back hauling branches out of the water.  Once out in the wet weather nothing seems to deter her from getting wetter or muddier and for once she and I see eye to eye, especially when she has fallen over and I can give her face a good cleaning off while she is laying there recovering!  However she is not as enamoured with my cleaning method as I am and usually belts out a loud "get offfff" when I try to help.  I also give invaluable help with removing the broken branches from the water but my stacking system is not up to scratch yet.  When the branches are log size the Boss gets busy with his noisy cutting machine and I have to stand well back until they are reduced to bite size, even then I sometimes have trouble hauling them into place.  The Mrs helps and eventually we load it all on the trailer and take it back to the barn for stacking in the dry.  By this time we are all dog tired, my coat is usually quite wet and I seem to be covered in sawdust and mud in equal measures.  The Boss and the Mrs usually fair a bit better and can shed their wet gear before entering their domain but bath time for me looms in the future...... I can feel it in the air and in the eyes of the Mrs as she regards me with that look which bodes ill for dirty dogs.  It's out with the perfumed shampoo and hairdryer......I can feel a woofter moment coming on.  This constant rain brings out my natural perfume but the Mrs feels she can improve on that with her bottles and potions so I comply just to keep the peace......roll on summer!