Blue and Chicken

Life has been a series of house sitting assignments this summer. One moment I am on top of Chilliwack Mountain living the life of the rich and famous, the next I am knee deep in chickens on a farm with two crazy pooches. The name of said pooches: Blue and Clover. Now Blue is a lovely blue tick hound with the most soulful eyes in the universe, while Clover is a miniature sized hound that is all white with red brown spots that blurr past your eyes as she zips around the room.

Now I am the first one to admit that I am allergic to dust, hay, trees, pollen, cats and...dogs, so you must be wondering why I would be so stupid as to do this house sitting gig...All I can say is HAVE YOU SEEN THESE GUYS?? who could say no to them! And isn't that what all those anti-histamines are for?

So here I was in the midst of an allergic spasm when I had this great idea, why don't I take both dogs to the lake. Good idea right, lots of land to run on, people to play with and water, what could be better...OOPS sort of forgot that we had to spend about 5 hours in the car together to get there. But hey, it wouldn't be my car, nope I had their owners car and what could go wrong, all the hair and dog fur would stay in her car and mine would be safe. It was a bigger car and had air conditioning, life was grand!

Did I forget to mention that Blue has a tendency to get so excited in any vehicle that she howls and whines most of the first hour until she subsides into a panting hyperventilation mode with lots of running back and forth between windows to sniff at lord knows what and to lay her head on your shoulder drooling. Yup life was grand...poor Clover who is usually the spaz, was trying to sleep the whole time but Blue kept stepping on her head. Who knew how perilous the road to Hope could be as you try to calm one dog while driving a bigger car and keeping Clover from jumping out the open window (which by the way I sort of caught her head in as I was trying to close it but she's ok...seriously she is).

Phew so eventually we make it to the lake. The weather was sunny, wet, sunny and then cold but what long weekend isn't! Blue was winning over the extended family left right and center. Clover on the other hand was becoming a permanent fixture under my parents old dining room table. So much so that her new label became Chicken.

"Hey Auntie Kim can I take out Blue and Chicken?" became the new refrain around the cabin I was beginning to get scared that Clover would begin to answer that before her owners came home. Not to worry though she remained only slightly traumatized after spending a weekend with the Van Dop clan and their extended relatives. Me and my two shadows whooped it up all weekend, swimming (yes Clover became a champion swimmer once she got in) and running (well they ran, I watched!) and then suddenly it was Monday and time to go . Well needless to say we drove home with Blue howling, Clover sleeping and me maneuvering through yucky traffic. All's well that's ends well.