It's been raining pretty much every day here for the last several weeks--the standard summer weather for Louisiana. While one does get a little sick of rain, I can't really bitch too much about it, since the rain has done a marvelous job of keeping the heat to a reasonable level. Last year was unspeakably brutal, with temperatures well into triple digits because we weren't getting the afternoon thunderstorms every day. And, wearing brown polyester and ballistic armor is not pleasant when the temps are that high. (Brown polyester isn't all that great when it's wet, either, but I'll take wet from rain over wet from sweat anyday.)

The downside to all the rain is that Zeus does Puddle Splashing when I let him out. I've determined that there is a real art to Puddle Splashing, and it involves building up doggie running speed and then hurling the dog self into the water (the most fun seems to be had when the water is about 4-5 inches deep--which is most of my yard after a stiff rain) and then running as fast as doggily possible the entire length of the yard. Extra points are gained if you are able to also bark at the dog next door while doing this, and super-bonus points are added if you manage to soak every inch of fur on your body.

Therefore, since I would be a lousy mommy if I denied him this joy, I deal with the aftermath by having a supply of Dog Towels on hand. When Zeus comes in he stands while I towel the majority of the wet off of him (and amazingly he really does stand pretty patiently through this--I think he likes being rubbed down.) And then, it's time for the Towel Game. As soon as he feels that I've rubbed him down enough (which is usually when I'm close to being done) he grabs the towel in his teeth and we play growlie-tug o' war. (Yes, we both growl.)

Needless to say, he tends to shred towels (and to his credit, he never tries to play Towel Game with my towels.) Therefore, yesterday while I was shopping in Walmart with my Mom, I told her I was looking for towels for my dog--and that I wanted them to be the same color as the others I'd been using, just to make sure he continued to know which towels he was allowed to play Towel Game with. Mom watched me examine various shades of light blue towels for about five minutes as I was looking for the correct shade of light blue. She finally said, "You're spending an awful lot of time looking for the right blue for your color-blind dog."

...

"What's your point," I snapped, as I grabbed the cheapest light blue towel.

Of course then she had the gall to state that I could just as easily have gotten him a light pink towel and he'd never have known the difference.

As if!! Zeus is a macho dog! (Except for the fact that his nuts have been removed.) I could never buy him a pink towel!

Hmmf!