paperclippy

So last night it was nice out so I took Carter to the dog park. He was actually very good with the other dogs, not too many dominance attempts and very little growling (only when one dog would not leave him alone!). It rained two days ago, and there was a huge puddle in the park, which had been churned up into a watery mud pit. Of course, all the dogs were going crazy rolling around in it and running through it at top speed splashing water everywhere.

Carter took a peek, waded in very carefully, then wandered off. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, okay, he just wanted to get his feet wet. Well, a little while later, he wades in again, takes a couple licks of the water . . . and lays down. Argh! It was actually pretty cute. I know he loves water so I figured he'd probably end up in there sooner or later. I counted myself lucky that he didn't roll in it at least.

They have kiddie pools at the park that people usually fill up with water from the hose to let their dogs lay in, and I don't mind when Carter does that because he usually gets out cleaner than he was when he got in. However, after wallowing in the mud, he needed a bath. Really he's been needing a bath for a while so this was a good excuse. I wiped off his feet when I got him in the car, then when we got home kept him on the leash and took him straight into the bathroom. Amazingly, I had little trouble getting him into the tub. The lesson learned is that if I keep him in his harness and leash, he can't really resist following me very well.

So I get him in the tub, get all his gear taken off, and start the shower running. He's being pretty good, so I start rinsing all the mud off of him (hard to do because the mud is mostly UNDER him). I try to get him to lay down so I can get more water on his belly. Okay, he mostly lays down. I let go of him to scoop up some water, and VOOSH! He's making a run for it!!! I make a frantic grab for him and manage to snag his back legs. Meanwhile he's gotten the shower curtain open and is scrabbling around on the floor with his wet and muddy front paws. Unfortunately I couldn't get any traction either because I was all wet and standing barefoot in the shower, and he managed to wriggle out and escape into the main part of the bathroom . . . where he immediately shook, spraying muddy water all over the floor, the walls, the counter, and the toilet.

Ben (who was downstairs working out) told me later that he thought by all the yelling I was doing ("No! Carter no!! Get back here! Bad dog!") that he'd gotten out of the bathroom entirely and was spreading mud all over the upstairs, but luckily I had shut and locked the bathroom door when I put him in there. In any case there followed a very slippery chase around the bathroom (amazing how much chasing is required in such a small space), where he managed to get muddy water all over everything he hadn't already covered, and I finally cornered him next to the tub and was able to lift his front feet in and then force his back feet back in. Phew!

He made a couple more escape attempts but I managed to stop him from getting his front paws out of the tub again, and he eventually submitted to being thoroughly washed. I think I got a pretty good workout. :P

For a dog that loves water and swimming, you'd think he would take a bath with dignity. Sigh. But I have to say, when he gets out of the tub and is clean and toweled off, it's totally adorable to see him zoom around the house trying to air dry himself.

My telling of this story totally doesn't do justice to his mad dash for freedom and the slip-and-slide chase that followed though. What a dog.

So, we had an ant invasion, and this morning I sprayed some ant poison on their trail. The instructions said to keep people and pets away until it dried, so we left Carter out in the backyard when we went to work and left the windows open so the fumes could escape. We gave him his bed, food, water, and chew toy, and he seemed to realize we were leaving, so we thought it would be fine.

When we got home, we first went around to the backyard to make sure he was okay. But he wasn't there! In fact, he was INSIDE the house. We went in thinking either Ben's mom had stopped by and let him in, or that some neighbor had been annoyed at his barking and let him in (we had our fence gates and the back door unlocked).

( pictures and the rest of the story behind the cut )