A Dog's Christmas

Today was my last day of work for a while. I don't have to commute down to my place of work until after the New Year. That being said there is always work to be done around the house. The first and foremost is taking care of our pack of dogs. We have four total.

The old lady of the Group: Rosie She turns 17 in February. She's a Schnauzer mix.

Mischief personified: Emily on the left Amy on the right. Miniature Schnauzers. They will turn 3 in February

And the only other male in the house besides myself: Scruffy. He's 11

All our dogs are rescues.

Ann and I take turns walking the dogs or at least letting them out to take care of business. Scruffy gets the longest walks as he's the biggest dog by about 30 lbs and he's also the easiest to walk. At 17, Rosie isn't that interested in walking. She's more about the treat waiting at the end of the walk. The twins can walk as far as Scruffy, but walking them is a disaster waiting to happen. If we run into someone, they go berserk with the barking, pulling on their leashes and carrying on. Their bark is just at the high pitch level thats it's like fingernails on a blackboard. No one wants to hear that. Especially first thing in the morning. So Scruffy gets the long walk. Since its currently Canadian weather here in Virginia, I limit the walk to one mile round trip. We walk to the local elementary school, which is a half mile away. This time of year school is in session so there are two crossing guards at the school. One always carries a treat for the local dogs. Obviously she is a dog person with three of her own. Scruffy eagerly awaits for her to dig into the pocket of her uniform to produce the prized treat. He gets a bit mystified on weekends or school holidays when we walk to the school and there isn't a treat waiting for him. Last week, after giving the Scruffy his treat, she said she had something for us. She went to her car and brought back this enormous chew bone. She told Scruffy he had to share it with his sisters. We placed it under the tree too hand out Christmas morning. Its for a Dog's Christmas.