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Thursday, July 26, 2007

dog blog

It seems our happiness at having Heidi here translated into some kind of Universal Invitation to all dogs and kids in need of love, food, and entertainment, to converge in our yard... Meet Iris...

Like Heidi, Iris is technically in Lauren's care, because my big-hearted girl agreed to watch her so her friend could go on a family trip to Denver. Iris is a very sweet 5 month old red heeler. But she has a small medical need - a nasty abscess on her neck was cleaned up by the vet, and now has a rather icky drainage tube in place. It needs to be watched and she gets a pill every day, and of course we can't let her scuffle with Lucy or Heidi... It's challenging having three female dogs who don't know each other well all staying here at camp. I think we can get it to work, but close supervision is in order!

We got Iris more or less settled in last night, put Lucy in the bedroom to reduce the stress load, let Heidi out to meet Iris, and planned a "relaxing" evening on the patio... hahaha! We are SO funny!

Here's how it really happened... Lauren's friend Jade, and her two kids came by to visit and see the goats. We love them. Glad to have them. And then the three boys next door popped over to meet these new kids, and suddenly our quiet evening included 5 kids, two extra dogs, a lot of sticks and rocks (we don't have toys anymore), and one tiny bike. At this point we figured we might as well order some pizza...

Ta-da! Instant party!

The boys brought over pizza their mom had ordered. (She was smart enough to stay home and enjoy her own quiet evening!) Our pizzas arrived and we got beers out for the grown-ups, and pop for the kids. Jade, the Awesome Mom of the Year, was a lifesaver, drinking nothing but bubble-water and herding kids the whole time. We needed someone who was used to having that kind of energy around... it's been a while since Rick and I had so many young ones in the house! As my Granny always said - Where's my drink?!











The play got kind of rowdy, as it tends to do in herds of kids, and Iris enjoyed doing her job as a herding dog. I told them it was all good until someone cried, and then the party was over. Wouldn't you know it, Alyssa, the tiny girl in her pink swimsuit, was the one to hit overload first and burst into tears. I guess the boys believed me, because they headed straight for home. Jade made sure no one was hurt, and took her two home for baths and bed. Poof! Five minutes later, we were back to our quiet evening on the patio. Iris herded Lauren's feet, in her Uggs sheepskin boots, back into the house, and Rick and I just sat dazed for while. Man.... what was that? As I fell into bed, I thought, hmmmm... it was actually okay... even kind of fun... and I didn't mind that, for a while, we were able to be here for what someone else (or many someone elses) needed, and not just what we wanted...

Of course, there are limits to all that! ;0)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds like my week-long family reunion... The life of the party is my brother's youngest (10 years old) so we can't send him home... ;+)) This little guy is a human Duracell bunny, he keeps going and going and going. But he is so much fun: I'll rest once I'm back at work!!!

Jean Katherine Baldridge said...

what a cute post! love the uggs part!!!