The sun is shining and the sky is blue, a much different day than yesterday. Before I had puppies I did not give as much thought to the weather. Raining? Bring an umbrella with me on my way out. Hot and humid? Throw my curly hair up into a twist. Cold? Grab a sweater. But it is quite different when you have puppies.

Six months ago when we were in the wintery days of January, with rain, sleet and snow, I remember seeing pictures on Facebook of my friend’s dog. Her beautiful yellow lab puppy was covered with mud, and I laughed at how cute he was. We had an exceptionally wet few weeks, I can imagine my friend’s desperate pleas with Mother Nature to just give her a break already!

To a lesser degree I felt a bit of that pain yesterday. It rained hard all afternoon. When the weather finally broke, I brought the pent up pups out to play. They raced around the wet yard, under the bushes, behind the trees, rolling on the grass, jumping into the flower beds and flower pots. Within minutes their brushed out soft fluffy fur was sopping wet in drippy ringlets. They continued to run around, their shiny black curly coats flashing past me as I stood on the soaked lawn. I glanced at my watch and realized I was going to be running late if I did not get them back in to eat dinner. I had plans for the evening, a get together with some friends. When we got to the backdoor I looked down at the drenched pups and realized they were very muddy. I was alone and needed a plan to get them clean, keep the house clean, and also get myself ready to go out.

So I placed dirty dripping Koda into his bare crate, scooped up Summer and headed directly to my bath tub. She was squeaky clean in no time. I switched them out and repeated the process. The dogs looked and smelled like sweet puppies again. My white bath tub was a mess, as was I. Now, I do not know what it is about clean puppies but their energy level went through the roof. After they’d been towel dried, they went nuts, running all around the family room and kitchen. It did remind me of my own children after bath time running around upstairs with wet hair in their clean pajamas, bouncing off the walls.

I’d planned to crate the pups so I could get ready, but that was not going to happen with how active they were at the moment. So I poured myself a glass of wine and watched while they tired themselves out. At one point they went to the door and barked as if to need to go outside to potty. Outside where the bushes were all wet, outside where the garden was muddy. No way. I will take my chances. A few minutes later I ended up cleaning two piddle puddles on the wood floor in the kitchen.

Finally they were spent and just passed out. I quickly got ready and left for my night out, wearing my new fragrance, “wet puppy.”