Charm & Character

I often hear an old home referred to as having lots of charm or character. Whether that be that the mail is delivered into a slot that can be checked from the living room, beautiful hard wood floors that allow no one the ability to sneak off the rest room, or unique built in cabinetry. Our home while only 11 years old has a bit of character itself. You see a few of our doors happen to gently swing themselves closed with no assistance whatsoever stranding you either in a dark bedroom or an even darker bathroom.

Our 3 year old Golden Retriever, Jemma, has found this characteristic very challenging for her. She has also found that it is very difficult for God to open a window when there isn't one. Jemma is a very loyal and social dog and in an effort to be sure she is with you at all times she will often go searching to find you. The bathroom door posing a problem for her because while not latched shut she can't tell if anyone is in there. So she pushes the door open saunters in and finds no one there then turns around to leave finding the door closing. Soon from some where in the house I will here the door snap shut and know she is locked in our dark bathroom. Now if she hadn't tried to open the door it wouldn't have snapped shut and Duke is waiting on the other side of the door pushing with all his might to free his poor sister who has yet again locked herself in the bathroom. Shortly after I hear the door shut if no has rescued her in her preferred time frame the whining and shrill barks begin. This was funny the first few times but now this happens a few times a night, often in the middle of the night while you are sleeping, leaving one to question her once proven intelligence.

Jemma found the other day that while God had no window to open he was busy orchestrating another door to open. One that led to a large park with a pond, ducks, kids to walk and pet her and a fountain. Now the unfortunate part about this park was that she and Duke had to stay on the leashes so here you see them wishing with all they are that they could chase the ducks and swim in the pond. Later, Duke made friends with Joshua whose family had invited us to come along with them to the park. Joshua decided that he wanted to take Duke's dog walking into his 5 year old little hads so they were off. Duke listening to Joshua's every command and not tugging him along like he does to me. I was very impressed and slightly envious that a 5 year old was better at walking my dog than I was. Just then Duke spots it, the fountain. Full speed ahead with Josh jogging behind Duke pulls Josh up the stairs and plants his whole head and front two paws into the fountain. Joshua quickly decided he didn't want to be responsible for our wet, crazy, water obsessed dog and handed him over. While the six adults discussed whether or not dogs were allowed in the fountain. Deciding that of course dogs, especially our dogs, should be allowed in the fountain Mike and I ditched our shoes and escorted our two dogs into the very cold fountain. Duke put his nose down and sloshed through the water as if this was the only thing to do when faced with a fountain full of cold water and plunged forward demonstrating for Jemma who was too busy daintily pulling each foot completely out of the water before replacing it a few inches in front of her cold wet body.

It turned out to be a great outing with new friends and one in which my dogs throughly enjoyed!P.S. I added a little baby tracker so you can all see how much time we have left till our little bundle joins us in the world.