Water Dishes & Climbing Walls
Happy Monday!! We had a Girls Only Weekend because Barry went on his annual Men’s Hike with some friends. I stayed home with Maggie and Sydney and made sure that the blueberries still taste good this close to September. They do, yummy! Sydney and Maggie solidified their friendship even more over the weekend after Maggie discovered what a joy it is to have Syd do some tricks in trade for a nibble on a treat.
That said, Maggie has also fallen in love with the idea that she has the power to get Syd to shake a paw and stay in one place and sometimes fails to dole out the treat in a reasonable amount of time. I guess you could say we’re working on sharing already. Sydney is so patient with Maggie’s shenanigans, even letting Maggie dump water on her from the Sandy Lagoon!
Along with the new treat fascination came more interest in Sydney’s water and food dishes. Remember this? Well, the love-fest with Sydney’s water dish was not short lived. This weekend brought a whole new level with Maggie walking around with the dish trying to deliver the water directly to the, apparently, thirsty Pug. Sadly, after this happened one too many times, the water dish broke and is now replaced with one that isn’t so easy to lift.
I’d almost rather have Maggie be walking around the house with Syd’s water dish because this appears to be the other option:
Backyard Dog Park
Yesterday Sydney ‘adopted’ one of Maggie’s toys and we ended up outside playing fetch with it for quite a bit. Syd was in heaven and full of energy that by the time evening rolled around, she’d about had it with the day. You’d think we took the poor girl to the dog park or something, but instead her day included a boring walk and a game of wrestle/fetch in the backyard.
I love our yard and our garden, but lately it has started to overwhelm me because everything is so overgrown and daunting. I was in spired by my mom last time she was down and did some whacking back….I’ve vowed to fill up the wheelbarrow with yard waste daily in hopes of getting rid some of the extra foliage until I can’t stand it anymore. Today was day two and you can hardly tell where I worked, but I figure slowly but surely we’ll make a difference.
I say WE because Maggie was super helpful today, grunting right along next to me. Her newest phrase is uh-oh, but doesn’t quite have the correct usage down, so there were a ton of ‘uh-ohs’ between tugs on leaves.
Both Maggie and Barry have spent time recently working on the Birch tree that we’ve got in our yard. Barry sawed some extra branches off and Maggie’s newest hobby is to peel the bark off and deliver it to the nearest adult. I’m sure, like Sydney, the tree is happy to have someone pay attention to it rather than be left alone.
Funnily enough, we also got our fancy brush out and have been giving Syd pretty strong brushes because the girl sheds and who wants to live with dog hair up their nose? Not us. Maggie is equally excited to try to brush Syd as she is to peel the bark of the tree. I have no doubt that Syd would rather Maggie spend time helping the tree shed some extra layers than get near her rolls with the brush, so we brush Syd next to the Birch tree so we can kill two birds with one stone and we’re all happy because of it.
Carry on!