Abby Gets Shitfaced
Abby is a complete mess
Abby and I have hiked at Bogus Basin so many times that I don't post about it anymore unless something notable happens. I think that this qualifies.
We started from the Lower Lodge. Since it was Saturday there were other people and dogs around so I put her on leash when we started. We were just getting far enough that I was thinking of letting her off leash when we came on a group of about twenty hikers. They were all kind of milling around - it looked like they were trying to get organized before starting out. As we passed they asked if I would take a group picture.
Sure. No problem. But it was tricky trying to take the picture while Abby was pulling, trying to get to sniff all the new people. Finally one of the hikers, a teenage girl, took Abby so my hands would be free. Abby immediatly joined the group and sat down in a nice pose. Everyone laughed as I took their picture with their new member posed pretty right in the front of the group. I should have taken one with my camera but didn't think fast enough. Abby was very friendly and by the time we started hiking again she had made several friends.
She did a good job of rubbing it into her collar
It was about half way to the Upper Lodge that we ran into trouble. Sometimes when we go for walks Abby will roll around, rubbing her collar into the ground. It must bother her or something. Maybe she is trying to get it off. She usually gets great big hunks of grass stuck in her collar and sometimes even gets it turned inside out. She was up ahead of me and when I came around a corner I could see her rolling around, messing with her collar. Unfortunately she had found a colossal pile of poop from some animal and that's what she was rolling around in. It looked like cow poop although I have never seen cattle up at Bogus. Whatever the origin, it was green and slimey and fresh. I yelled at her to stop but it was too late. She had poop smeared all over her face, her neck and her sides. Instead of grass, great big gobs of the stuff were stuck in her collar. I took some pictures of her - from a safe distance. I couldn't imagine a worse mess.
Ironically, I was wearing my Teddy the Dog tshirt that said "Dirty Dogs Have More Fun". Really. Somehow it didn't seem as funny as when I had put it on in the morning.
There wasn't much that I could do so we kept hiking. Whenever we would meet someone I would put her on leash so she couldn't get too close to people. Later when we met the group of hikers, Abby was anxious to run over to see her friends again. I had to warn them because several of them kneeled down to pet her. The last thing that they wanted now was a Puppy Hug.
Selfie!
A lot of times that we hike Abby will go in a stream or roll in the dirt and get really dirty. Not like this. Just ordinary dirty. As she hikes a lot of it just seems to fall off. Her fur is kind of like teflon. I was hoping that if we kept hiking long enough, some of the mess would just drop off. It took us another hour and a half to finish our hike and sure enough, a lot of the mess HAD fallen off. Not all of it though. Not anywhere near all of it. She didn't get to ride down in the backseat. She had to ride in the cargo compartment in back. She didn't make a fuss though. As soon as we started back she laid down and slept most of the way home.
When we started I thought that we might stop at West Side Drive In for lunch. That wasn't an option anymore. Instead we stopped at Veterans Park where we could get to the Greenbelt along the Boise River easily. We walked a few hundred yards until I found a place she could wade into the river. While she was playing in the water, I washed out her collar. Fortunately no one saw me. I guess I could have gotten a ticket for dumping raw sewage into the river.
I texted a picture to Sandy and explained what happened. She was waiting when we got home. I took Abby straight out to the backyard where she got a very thorough bath. She must have sensed she was "in the dog house" because she didn't put up the fuss that she usually does when she gets a bath. It took a while but amazingly we got her clean again. Even more amazing was the fact that she didn't smell at all. So in the end, there was no harm done. I did get a good story to tell. And I had certainly earned the right to wear my "Dirty Dogs Have More Fun" tshirt.
