The dog and I just got back from an epic rain ramble. She’s now napping happily under the dining table, smelly, damp, and exhausted.
We found and romped in the King Daddy of all puddles today. There’s essentially a crater about 6 blocks from the house, where a large building was demolished many years ago, and they didn’t do much with the old foundation excavation beyond clear out the rubble and seed it. So, there’s about a 15′ deep depression with sloped sides that’s around a 30′ X 40′ rectangle. A good 6-8″ of standing rainwater had collected in the bottom of this pit, and Ruby and I spent about 20 minutes racing around in the water.
She got SO excited that she was bouncing back and forth like a bucking bronco, then running from side to side so fast you could about hear “VROOM” noises coming off her. She pounced, splashed, spun in tight circles, zig-zagged, and pranced with such glee. Taking her down into the pit of water was the best possible gift I ever could have given her. We’ll probably go back later this afternoon, or perhaps tomorrow if it’s still raining or if the water hasn’t absorbed into the ground yet.
While Ruby looks to be mostly Australian Shepherd or partly Collie, she has the webbed feet and love of getting wet that one associates with a Lab, Poodle, or Spaniel dog. On our walk, she kept beelining for every full, running gutter or standing puddle on the sidewalk. Coming across our own personal Pit Pond was serendipitous and well-received. As we made our way down the sloping walls of the excavation and she caught sight of the standing water, she lost all of her sense and manners and started pulling like crazy toward the Best Puddle of All Time.
It takes so little to make a dog so happy, and we were both already soaked anyhow. A little gratuitous splashing wasn’t going to make us any wetter and it amused the heck out of both of us..
Bonus pic: Ruby’s ear fur gets all crimpy-looking when it’s wet.
The crimpy ear-fur, water obsession, and webbed feet are very Golden Retriever. Ruby is such a beautiful puppy, no matter what her makeup.
She’s a good little dog. Silly, fairly obedient, and not too wild, except when given free rein to “let her hair down.”