Rain, Rain, Go Away!

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring  
Bumped his head and he went to bed
and he couldn't get up in the mornin'
Rain rain, go away, come again some other day.


It's the last line of that little ditty that keeps running through my head! High winds, driving rain, power outages, flash flooding, thunder, lightning, wet Lhasas ... my list of reasons for wishing the rain away go on and on. I know that "April showers bring May flowers," but what we are getting is much more than "showers."


While the noisiness of the storms has not seemed to bother my Lhasas, they tend not to enjoy their routines being changed, and the heavy storms have created some problems for them in that regard. Take yesterday morning for example, when we opened the back door to let them out and saw that there was a good 3 inches of water filling their exercise area. Exercise pens to the rescue!

We were more fortunate than our son and his family who woke up yesterday morning to 4 feet of water in their basement. My son's weight room is there. Their laundry room is there. So was their cats' litterbox. Talk about angry cats! They couldn't go downstairs and, because of the downpour, could not/would not go outside. Amanda had to go to the store to buy a new litterbox and litter to put in the upstairs bathroom until the basement gets cleaned up.

Younger versions of ourselves!

Besides the rain, this week was eventful in that we celebrated our 41st anniversary on Monday. 

It was also eventful in that Windy excelled in training class, not dropping her tail a single time. Hurray for Windy!!! I hope that hurdle is behind us. Duncan went to his first class and was such a good little puppy. He walked on the lead (with encouragement and a  treat to entice him). He did not seem intimidated by the larger dogs, and he stood nicely (not perfectly, but nicely) on the table for exam. He traveled well in his crate for the slightly over 3 hour round trip.

Mira is getting a nice big belly. If puppies are not on the way, then I have reason to be really worried about her. 

Mira-when she had coat!

I received a nice email from Raquel, who owns a half-brother to our Rafe (same mother). Her boy, Hilo, was sired by our Ch. Joyslyn's Heartbreaker. Raquel wrote that she was attaching a photo of Hilo laying in one of his favorite places, the back for the couch, and went on to say, "I'm so very proud of my little guy and he is just so lovable.  He is the true  definition of a lap dog.  He loves to sit on my lap or my husband's lap when we  are watching TV, and he always follows me upstairs and begs me to pick him up  and put him on my lap when I'm sitting at the computer doing homework. It's so  much a routine now, that I have a pillow I prop in between me and the arm rest  of the chair so that he can lay his head on it...In order for him to stay still for brushing sessions I have to take him down  stairs and sit him on the top of the clothes dryer.  It's my grooming table and the only way he will stay still. I can even cut the hairs around his eyes without any trouble. Of course, he gets his treat after too."

Here is the photo Raquel sent of Hilo, and in case you are wondering, yes...that is his tail! Raquel says she would "NEVER cut his tail short."

I don't have any photos of Duncan to share this week. We were just too busy to take any. Plus, it is difficult to get him to be still. He wants to be on the move constantly. We did get some photos taken of Rafe last week and I'll share one taken of his profile and another of his face. Like his sire, Walker, he is not very fond of having a camera pointed at him. People ask me about his color and all I can say is that it is changing. He was a deeper red as a puppy, now it is sort of red gold with gray & black hairs (sable), but the new guard hairs coming in by his part are a deeper red. As with any Lhasa, we'll just have to wait and see!

Rafe, profile (left), head (above)

We have a busy week coming up with a show to prepare for, an out of town trip for work, a grant proposal to write, and a granddaughter's 7th birthday to celebrate. In addition, it is supposed to rain Monday through Thursday. (It's going away for the weekend and returning on Monday!)

But—I gotta say it—come rain or shine—Life is better when you have a Lhasa to love you!

Joyce