August 7, 2015

"White Dog is outside?" I asked, rather surprised at how quiet the house was this early in the morning. Normally, the White Dog Army is busy greeting the day, wrestling with each other, supervising Steve. My company in late rising are usually YoYoMa, Nilla and Bella. This morning EVERY pup was outside...and then I noticed the stack of cleaned and dried towels folded and waiting...

"Oh yeah, Bath Day Part Two!" I laughed. "Can't wait...but must have coffee first."

White Dog was NOT happy that she was subjected to a BATH and not a morning at the spa. And the big kids, YoYoMa, Ferguson, Nilla each brought their own challenges with spraying the bathroom with shake water and not being willing to "Sit-Stay." The littler White Dogs stay mostly because they cannot scramble out of our deep old-fashioned bathtub...not a problem for the larger ones.

And Zsofia. Well, Zsofia is her own story. The singing and drama that accompanied HER bath had all of the White Dog Army nervously clustered outside the door fretting that she was being tortured. And when she bolted out still streaming soapy water, she did NOT respond to Steve's "Come Back Here!" instead choosing to roll on the sofa, drench all of us in the living room and then run outside. Steve dragged her back in by her collar, walked past with an "excuse us," and reshut the bathroom door.

They emerged together five minutes later with the soap rinsed off as well as the sand and yard bits that her rolling had attached to her side.

We humans were exhausted and prayed that the repeat in two weeks would go smoother. "Maybe we should start now and stretch it out over the next 14 days. You know, to ease the stress," Steve suggested knowing full well that it was not possible.

While he loaded towels into the washer and changed soaking wet clothes, I drew the White Dog Army's interest as I prepared fish tacos for all of us as a reward. I shredded red cabbage and dressed it. Then I cut cod into chunks and slipped them into a marinade of lime juice and garlic. Snooters followed every step. I mashed black beans until they were ready to refry and got out the tortilla griddle.

Steve sauteed fish as he cooked beans and warmed tortillas. In no time the WDA found fresh made fish tacos waiting in each bowl...a small thank you for the ardors of bath time.