Dog Days of Summer

Living with two dogs that weigh about 50-60 pounds in a space the size of a broom closet is always an adventure. Good or bad…well, like I said, it’s always an adventure!

Last night, as we were driving through Oklahoma and I was surfing the net, our dogs, Bella and Snoopy, became a little stir crazy. We’d let them out about an hour earlier, but we’ve had two long weeks of long hauling back and forth from TX to NC, NC back to TX, TX to MO and so forth. Paul and I have been getting pretty stir crazy, so I know the poor dogs had had it.

They started bouncing all over each other, tugging at ears, barking and rolling around all over the floor of the truck. Hyper crazy dogs!!! Then they decided to try to play with Paul but he yelled at them to get back, so before I knew it they were on top off me and the computer. Snoopy was on top of my lap attempting to give me great big slobbery kisses! I yelled at her and shooed her off me, but we were a tangle of arms, legs, wires and drool.

As soon as she was on the floor I looked down at my laptop and there were two key missing. I flipped! My mom bought this computer for us this spring and we just paid her back this past month for it. Boy, did I yell at those “bad dogs!” I was able to pop the key back on after a few minutes, but I was pretty irritated until I noticed that Paul was silently laughing. I did NOT find this to be funny!

Paul motioned with his eyes for me to look down at the dogs. They both were lying on the floor with their heads on their paws. Their eyes were both watching my every move with that “We’re really sorry- we didn’t mean it!” look. How can anyone not forgive puppy dog eyes? They looked so sad!

My favorite dog in the truck story was the time we were cooking with a little propane single burner on the floor of the truck (yes, the windows were all wide open!). We had put the dogs on the front seats while we were cooking, but Snoopy decided she had to jump down and check out what was going on. She kept turning around, not sure what to do as she was excitedly trying to see what the stove was and as Paul was telling her to turn and get back in the seat. Next thing we knew, her excitedly wagging tail was lit up like a candle! She didn’t even know what was going and thought Paul was trying to play a game as he stomped the flame out! Yeah, CRAZY dog!

Bella had ten puppies while Paul and I were on our honeymoon and at one point we had ten puppies living in the truck with us! Fun times. They were so rolly-poley and cute. Paul would let them out at rest areas and run back and forth with them chasing after him like he was the Pied Piper! They were so cute, but got big so quickly. One by one they found new homes, but we could never give up Snoopy. She was “daddy’s girl.” Even though I had a strict rule of “NO DOGS on the BED!,” I would find her tiny little body curled up asleep next to Paul on his pillow. What could I do? Yeah, you know what I did. I grabbed the camera and snapped pictures until I woke them both up.

Aaaahhhh, [big sigh] Dogs. Ya can’t live with ’em (okay, maybe you can, but honestly, what fun would that be?), ya can’t live without ’em!