Bath Day!

Thursday morning, someone (ie: Secret) was kind enough to barf all over my bed while I was in the shower. There is a slight possibility it could have been Joe, but my money is on Secret. No worries, nobody is sick -- The cause of the upchuck was a giant chunk of hoof that was apparently refusing to digest properly. I don't have these at home, so it was definitely from our trip to my parent's house Monday evening.

At any rate, because it sat for who knows how long before I noticed it and was able to clean it up, it resulted in the aforementioned vomit soaking through the "dog blankets" on top, through my comforter, through the sheets and all the way to the mattress pad (which thankfully is the kind that prevents anything from getting to your mattress!).

This meant a trip to the laundromat following work because try as I might, I simply cannot fit a king sized comforter into my machine at home. Conveniently enough, the laundromat in Bangor has the added bonus of having a "dog wash" station available. It's pretty handy and for $6 you get 15 minutes use of the tub, water, soap, conditioner and a blow dryer. I'd say it's worth it to keep that mess out of your house.

Mr. Joe has smelled like a cow barn since he arrived. Most of the time it's not even noticeable, but when he gets wet (such as when wrestling outside with Secret) it can be a little overwhelming. So I figured that as long as we had to go to the laundromat, I may as well see what Joe thought of his first bath!

The washing machine had a half hour to run, so I decided to kill a little time by going to a nearby park and letting the dogs run around for a little bit. Well..... Secret went and jumped in the creek (!!???!!!) and got all muddy, and then she found something to roll in when I wasn't looking. So guess who else earned herself a bath?

I decided to do Secret first so that Joe wouldn't have to sit and freeze in the car after his bath. Secret was already wet, too, so I figured it would be easiest to start with her. She didn't love it, but she was a fairly good girl about the whole thing. The blow dryer scared the crap out of her, though, and she was shaking pretty much the whole time I used it on her (which is like half the 15 minutes -- the dyer kind of stinks).

But I had to laugh at how huge and fluffy she looked when she was done! When does Secret ever look fat? She looked positively ginormous!

Then it was Joe's turn. I let Secret stay in the wash bay with us for Joe's bath thinking that he might be happier to have a friend in there with him. I lifted Joe up into the tub and he kind of stood there looking around, a bit unsure of things. When the water started he had a minor freak-out, and then when it touched him he started to scream like a little girl!

It didn't last all that long. He gave up rather quickly and stood like a good boy. Holy cow did he smell horrible, though!! The cow barn smell was just leeching off him and he reeked. The soap that the dog wash provided was pretty pathetic. I ended up soaping & conditioning him twice to try to get rid of the smell and in the end I can still smell cow on him.

I didn't mess around with drying Joe as long as I did Secret -- Partly because I took double the time soaping & rinsing him, but also because I figured there wasn't much point in stressing him out when the dryer doesn't work that well anyhow. For what I did do, he seemed to handle the dryer far better than Secret!

He didn't end up as poofy, but he's a whole lot cleaner and softer than he was before. Yay for beautifying! :o) In addition, Joe got his nails clipped Thursday afternoon and he's been learning about the fun activity of teeth brushing! Everyone in my house gets their teeth brushed a few times a week and I started introducing it to Joe right away. We started easy by just letting him eat the toothpaste, but he's already letting me brush his teeth with the tooth brush! Granted he does try to eat the tooth brush, but he's still being very good about everything.

The nail trim went well also, he's just very squirmy and it took a while. He didn't react negatively, but he'll need some help learning to sit still. I ended up putting him on my lap like I do for Kaiser to get his back nails done. It worked quite well, but he won't be able to do that for long for as fast as he's growing!

The holidays are upon us. I'm working the morning shift at the shelter both days this weekend, which is nice because I don't have to worry about having anyone else let the dogs outside. Tonight I have to go up to my parent's house (I still think I'll let Luke go along, but nobody else because it's so crazy up there) and then tomorrow I really have no idea what's going on. My mom's side of the family is all out of whack this year because my grandma broke her hip a couple of weeks ago and has been going between the nursing home and the hospital, and one of my aunts is still in the hospital following a hysterectomy. Merry Christmas to us, but I suppose we'll make the best of it. But sadly the dogs won't get to take part in any of it.

It snowed again, but it's all melting away today again. Hopefully we can find something to do this afternoon that doesn't involve getting covered in mud! Because I don't really feel like going through the bath scene again so soon. :o) We went down to play in the basement last night and Joe was introduced to the Theraball. That little stinker isn't afraid of anything. Everyone took a turn on it, even fighting at times over who's turn it was. I was very surprised at how comfortable Joe was on the peanut. I let him shake and wobble to test him out and nothing phased him. So long as there was food involved, he was totally game!

Since I won't be posting again for a few days, Merry Christmas to all!