Rainy Day Fun

Yesterday started out extremely hot and oppressively humid. Imagine being on the face of the sun. Now imagine being there wrapped in heavy, wet towels. That’s kind of what my morning walk felt like. Then in the late afternoon, the wind started to blow like crazy, the sky got very dark, and the rains came. My mommy could not have been happier. I know many of you have had too much rain lately, but not us. The garden needed a little watering by Mother Nature, and Mommy needed a little break from hose duty. It was time to find some fun activities for a rainy afternoon.

Mommy and I started the fun with our fourth session of obedience boot camp. I know what you’re thinking–obedience boot camp doesn’t sound fun at all–but I have to tell you that I am having a fabulous time and I’m progressing exceptionally well. Here I am doing Leave It. That’s Elephant, Parrot, and Lion and check out the pumpkin-and-blueberry-flavored treats on my feet. Pretty impressive, don’t you think? Leave It is one of my favorite commands. I hear it all the time on my walks.

After obedience boot camp, my mommy thought that we needed to do another rainy day activity. I thought that taking a nice, long nap sounded like the perfect rainy day fun; but Mommy seems to think that it’s important to stimulate my mind, so a nap was completely out of the question for the moment. Earlier in the day, she had read a blog post by Human Rescues Dog called “Dog Toys You Can Make Tonight.” One of the ideas was called Treats in a Bottle. You take an empty water or milk bottle (plastic, of course), put treats inside, and let your dog figure out how to get the treats out of the bottle. My mommy broke just a few of my favorite treats into little pieces and put them into an empty water bottle. As you can see, Mommy’s a little tight with the treats. She says it’s because she wants me to maintain my girlish figure. Whatever.

I cannot begin to tell you how much fun I had trying to get those treats out of that plastic water bottle. I rolled it around. I picked it up. I made funny inquisitive-puppy faces that I hadn’t made in a very long time. I even did an odd little puppy-like bark that even startled me. It was as if the Treats in a Bottle toy had shaved four years off of me.

And then the light bulb went off: If I raised the bottom and tipped the mouth of the bottle, those yummy treats would spill out. Brilliant! Thank you so much Human Rescues Dog for filling my rainy afternoon with fun, fun, fun!

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