All of a sudden, summer is definitely here. Let me tell you that wearing black fur in the summertime is not fun. Fortunately for me, my fur isn’t thick like Gryphon’s or I’d be panting all the time. Elsa has thicker fur than I do too, so she gets hot pretty easily as well. Fortunately we live with Mama who gets hot before anyone else I know, so she’s always devising new ways of keeping cool.
This weekend, when the summer furnace got turned on in earnest, Gryphon and Elsa were getting pretty uncomfortable, and we needed some fresh water. Mama filled our water bowl and then brought in a chunk of ice. I like ice cubes to lick. Mama usually gives me one that’s a nice size and I keep licking it until it’s gone. Elsa had never been given ice before, but of course, she was right in there because she thought it might be food. The term food hound was made for Elsa, I swear. Gryphon wasn’t interested in ice because she drank half the bowl of water before Mama brought it in.
Once she got her tongue on the ice, Elsa decided she really liked it, and kept licking away. Well, Mama didn’t want to stand there with a chunk of ice melting in her hand, so she broke Elsa off a piece and put the rest into the water bowl. Elsa’s ears sure pricked up with that. She hopped over to the bowl and licked the ice chunk. She didn’t want the small piece Mama had given her, she wanted the big chunk. Then she tried to bite off a piece for herself. It was funny to watch her trying to curl her lips back to bite the ice without getting her nose in the water. Then, since that wasn’t working, she plunged her whole face in the bowl. When she came up, she had an ice cube between her teeth. Victory. I thought Mama might fall on the floor she was laughing so hard. Not only that, but then Elsa spied another piece she wanted and did it again. So the game of bobbing for ice cubes was born.
I will say one thing for that pup, she’s pretty smart for being so young. She even knew to blow out through her nose while it was underwater so the water didn’t get up her nose. Papa was out with Grandpuppaw when Elsa was bobbing for ice cubes, so Mama told him what he missed. He couldn’t wait until he could try it, so he grabbed a chunk of ice and put it in the water. Elsa was after it in ticks of a puppy dog’s tail. She gets absolutely soaked in the process and then shakes herself which sprays the rest of us with ice cold water…which during this heat is not a bad thing.
All for now. Until next time. Paws Up!
Copyright 2009 © Phoenix with a helping paw from Gryphon and a distracting paw from Elsa
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“Just call me Your Highness” ~ Phoenix
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