May 24, 2012

White Dog stretched out on the bed and commented, "I hate fire season...we all roast from the summer heat and our dry wild lands become so susceptible to being devoured by flames."

True to his word, Steve had gotten the evaporative cooler going so even though the sun baked down outside, the White Dog Army was cool and comfortable in the flow of moistened air blowing from the down drafts.

For those unfamiliar with "swamp coolers," the concept is simple: on the roof sits a housing which holds a series of absorbent pads, a water line, and a fan. Water is sprayed on the pads soaking them with cold water. The fan blades and gravity suck the cold wet air into the house and down to the floor. Unlike air conditioning, windows and doors remain open a small bit so the the colder, heavier air pushes out the heat. This only works in areas of extremely low humidity, like the desert where we live, but in those places, It is wonderfully efficient...at least the White Ones think so.

Puff woke up coughing a deep lungy hack. It came up out of nowhere and the sound made all of the WDA nervous. Fortunately, she was scheduled to accompany Oso to see Dr. Julia...she for a annual heartworm test; he for a "Welcome to the White Dog Army" physical. Usually when we have something that just comes up, the pup never cooperates by making the noise or limping or having the issue in front of our good vet. This time, SAWD's coughing brought Dr. Julia in from the lab. "Is that Puffy?" Our girl has some major congestion, not helped by the smoke drifting over Albuquerque from the nearby Gila Wildfire. (We are anticipating a bad year for fires after a dry winter that was unusually warm; everything is tinder dry). She was sent home with an antibiotic and a caution to try to keep our shy girl inside and away from the nasty air. An unfortunate aspect of Swamp Cooling is that it is an open system as opposed to refrigerated air conditioning when everything is closed up tight.

Oso the Fearless, as we knew when we brought him home, is also Oso the Overweight. OAWD has joined the ranks with his brother, YoYoMa, in the need to diet. "Three pounds...four would be great!" T girls, all at perfect weight, have been very good about not teasing.

Steve has slightly reduced portions for YoYoMa's meals and our boy acts like all of the color has drained from his world. He is however, enjoying the extra walk in the morning coolness. Now Oso will also be among the food deprived but we will need to find another exercise for our littlest guy...the only way he could keep up with Steve and YAWD would be if Steve carried him in a backpack...and that would sort of defeat the purpose. "I LIKE that idea," Oso voted.

White Dog looked at him and suggested an alternative, "How about I take you out in the yard and we can run laps around the perimeter together for like half an hour?" "Whoa! WD, you are trying to slim him down not melt him away. How about starting with 3 laps?" Oso gratefully licked my hand. "What a wimp!" she replied and hopped back on the bed, put her head on the pillow and turned her belly up to the house breeze.