Another Rainy Day

This area has been in an extreme drought situation for 2 years, so rain has been welcome and we've had a lot of it this Winter. Not much snow, but plenty of rain. Days of it in a row.... It's not pouring but it IS overcast and dripping and really gloomy looking. The dogs have been content to stay indoors and seem to be feeling the gloom as much as I am... they're lying around, mostly sleeping, definitely not up for any tussling. Even the puppies.

Yesterday, Patch left. Poor guy. He knew something was up for him... they ALL seem to realize it's their turn to leave once I single them out from the "herd" and start taking them places and this last litter has been exceptionally intuitive about it. We, Patch and I, spent about an hour with the family and he was starting to relax a little until we put him in their car. He'll do fine, I have no doubt. The kids were nice... smart and well behaved and apparently they listen well to their folks because none of them rushed him. The funny thing, from my point of view, was Shadow's reaction. He's my guard dog and goes with me everywhere and is terrifically protective without being obnoxious or uncontrollable. Since he's Patch's dad, I took him to the meeting so the family could see him. (Mom... Emy... was soaking wet having decided to stay out in the yard and she doesn't like car rides anyway, so she stayed home.) Usually, I can just open the car door and ask Shadow to get out but yesterday, after he sat there for a while watching ALL THOSE PEOPLE (ESPECIALLY THE FOUR CHILDREN,) he REFUSED to get out. Even after I tugged rather seriously on the lead. It took me some time to convince him I was serious about wanting him out of the car... talk about embarassing! Some guard dog! He was more than willing to hop back in as soon as I let him. Don't know when he got so opinionated!