I can’t believe that between the time we moved to Texas in June 1990 to the time we moved to Colorado in November 1992, we acquired five dogs. We had been without a dog for many years, and we sort of went overboard when we finally had the space. We had gone back down to zero for a month before we acquired Dudley, our Rottweiler cross, and Lody, our smooth Collie a few months later. Somewhere in the course of five dogs, we had decided two dogs were quite enough.
I have been remembering what it was like to have a large pack because we do again, temporarily. My sister-in-law is traveling, and her regular dog sitter had other plans, so Lily and Lightning are staying with usfor ten days.
Lily is a sweet, gentle Golden Retriever who has one basic plan for dealing with life: when in doubt, roll on your back and wave your paws in the air. She is in doubt a lot of the time, so we get to see a lot of Lily’s belly. And yes, I know it is confusing that my mare and my sister-in-law’s dog has the same name. We manage to figure out to whom we are referring to most of the time.
Lightning is an impeccably well behaved Sheltie. He is quite friendly and outgoing, but not quite as clinging a dog as Lily. This is a good thing, because the excitement of the guests has made Lody revert to some of her clinging ways as well, and I occasionally feel plastered with dogs just between Lody and Lily.
The dogs all know one another because Lily and Lightning come out when my sister-in-law and her family visits. All the dogs get along well with other dogs, though Dudley and Lightning seem the happiest with the mob scene.
I took all four dogs with me when I took my walk this morning. Lily and Lightning are used to being off-lead on walks. They both understand Elaine’s first law of dog walks: “It is as much as the dog’s job to keep track of the person as it is the person’s job to keep track of the dog.” We had a lovely walk, and since both Lily and Lightning are higher energy dogs than we are used to, a daily three mile walk should help them manage their energy levels while they are here. Unfortunately, Lightning’s soft and silky Sheltie coat attracts burrs and needle grass like velcro, and I had to spend more time picking stuff out of his sable coat than the other three, much larger, dogs combined.