April 19, 2011

White Dog's back was damp when she came in from the yard. "Odd," I thought as I looked out to sunny blue cloudless skies, but continued working. But when Puff came in with a streak of mud across her cheek and shoulder, I knew something was not right. We are begging the heavens for rain and getting no response here in Albuquerque; there is no reason the yard would have mud. The hoses are not yet hooked up nor is the swamp cooler which ruled out leaks as a source...my thoughts as I continued my walk toward the yard.

I passed Nuka standing in bliss, face turned toward the sun, feet and shins caked in quickly drying mud. I looked around and didn't immediately see anything unusual...but then I heard water running and Quinn softly grunting behind my studio, on the hidden side of the storage shed. I gingerly made my way back and around to discover quite a large mud pool being fed by a running hose dangling from our neighbor's balcony. The water running from the hose was flooding their side yard and running under our fence.

Standing in the wettest, deepest part was The Other White Dog just softly woofing as he swished back and forth through the froth he was creating. He was dirty from the belly down. White Dog gave a warning bark to me from our deck and I realized...Mud...Three Eskies full of it...and this is Steve's late night...and Michael was still at school!

I rushed back inside just in time to follow AWD's tracks down the hall. With her under my arm, I closed the dog door, trapping TOWD and SAWD outside. I hustled the woolly one into the bathtub. It got to be a little tricky to wash one, keep her inside, get a dirty one from outside and repeat and repeat again. White Dog was the only one seemingly with the sense to avoid mud fun. Quinn was the hardest because he refused to leave the pool until the ultimate weapon, duck jerky was employed. With White Dog's help, I got everyone unmudded and inside.

THEN I headed next door. These neighbors rarely answer their door but I happened to catch the daughter's boyfriend arriving. He had no choice but to fetch the woman of the house. "(expletive)!" she cried! "I was scrubbing the furniture there and got a phone call! I forgot all about it!" Minutes later, We heard her dogs barking and assumed the water had been shut off.

I waited until dusk, when all of the standing water was absorbed and the surface starting to dry before I reopened the dog door. One by one each of the pups strolled out and once on the ground, made a beeline to where the water feature had been, only to come back in looking slightly disappointed and puzzled.

Steve is sure going to wonder about all of the towels in the laundry and the dried mud tracks on the kitchen floor.