Easter Parade

Yesterday was Easter so I headed up to my parent's house to enjoy an afternoon of walking the dogs, trying to re-screen a few screens from my house and stuff myself with turkey. Raimi loves my parent's house because there are things living in the woods and he can hear and smell them. He has yet to see said critters but I will rue the day he does. Here he is on High Alert. He knows there was something in those woods the last time we were here and he never forgot it.



Archer versus the pine cone.



Now, this is where the walk got ... interesting. At the end of my parent's property there is a pond that collects water as it drains down the hill, which then drains through a pipe into the ditch by the road. The dogs like to stop for a drink here and did so per usual. Archer, being young and impetuous, stooped briefly for a drink and then leap about 10 feet into the pond like he thought it was a puddle(or something). He totally panicked when he realized he was in at least 6 or 8 feet of water. In this photo you can see his head sticking out of the water amongst the panic splashing and Raimi and Leeloo looking at him like "WTF dude?"



I didn't catch his exit but Raimi and Leeloo ran to 'assist' him out of the water but as soon as he got near enough to provide them with a shower they backed off immediately.



It's hard to tell in this one that he is soaking wet, because he's a smooth coated dog, but trust me, he is *soaked* from the tips of his ears to the tip of his tail. He was called swamp dog for the rest of the day.



Here he is shaking off the embarrassment and stinky pond water. Esme was elbow deep in the water out of concern for her buddy but thankfully went no further in.



After the pond incident the dogs were taken by The Sillies so they ran around like maniacs ... that or they were just trying to get away from Archer who was spraying water everywhere. You can see some drops flying off him as he tackles Raimi.



A more sedate manner of getting a drink from the pond as demonstrated by Raimi. You can see how fast it gets deep.



Leeloo taking a drink and also demonstrating the more civilized way to do it.



Archer was mad at the pond and decided to take out his frustration on the reeds.



Here's lovely Esme watching the maniac Ridgebacks gallop through the woods. She doesn't feel confident to navigate the woods so she just ambushes them when they pop out of the bushes.



And lastly a photo of Raimi just before he ignores my recall and disappears into the brush by the house to investigate a squirrel that has been scolding us for a few minutes. He knows it's there, he can hear it and smell it ... but how to get it? I know, crash headlong through the undergrowth with no idea of direction and the squirrel is likely to come and meet you halfway. He did eventually come back when he realized I was leaving him(actually I was taking the other dogs to put in a run as I intended to go crashing into the bushes and drag him back - fortunately he came on his own when he realized I'd disappeared).



And that was Easter. A good day, no?