Gas Pains

Tom grew up in Milwaukee, bartended in Wauwatosa in the '70s and moved here in 1984.

Commentary, observations and musings about the outdoors, life in general and maybe Tosa politics and personalities will be the order of the day. He savors a lively debate as much as terrific cooking.

Mud Season

Labrador Retrievers, Mud Season, Odds and Ends.Stinky Dogs

Wow!  Does it stink!  Whew, those dogs have really got their stink on.  Let's get going and get some air moving thru here.  Sheesh!

Jill and I had just returned to the car on Sunday after hitting the Boston Store in Sheboygan on the drive home from the farm.  And after about 30 minutes of festering in the parking lot the smell of damp Labrador retriever had permeated the GMC.  The dog stink had embedded itself in the headliner, the fine leather upholstery and the dog crates way in the back.  And that's after two baths in as many days.  And the dogs didn't seem to mind it at all. They were sacked-out and snoozing.

I have been told that anybody who has more than one Lab deserves exactly what he or she gets.  That's because everyone knows that anybody that harbors a couple of Labs is certifiably nuts.  

Guilty as accused.

And this time of year is particularly useful to document the diagnosis as it is Mud Season.  And as a breed Labrador retrievers revel in mud, water and everything stinky.

Under normal conditions of dry - doesn't matter if it's hot or cold - Labs are rather amenable to being out-of-doors.  When it is hot and dry or cold and dry the results are the same - whatever they get into doesn't stick to their seal skin coat.  They're very capable of repelling whatever they've gotten into as it's either dessicated, frozen or both.  Frozen raccoon poop in the woods or dried dead fish on the beach - no problem - it doesn't amount to much. 

Spring is an altogether different experience.  As the snows recede, and the frost lets out of the ground the creeks flow, the puddles form, the ponds fill and there is an abundance of mud.  Just like a toddler that you might take to the splash pad over at Hart Park to play a Lab likes nothing more than charging deliberately and at top speed through every pothole of standing water available to them.  Icy creek running at full bore or thawing pond it makes no difference. 

We never really knew exactly how dirty our black Lab was capable of getting until we welcomed the blonde Lab into the family.  Black hides the dirt - yellow doesn't.  Now we know.  They're both filthy beyond belief this time of year. 

There is also the ticking time bomb of the thawing critter poop out there.  When called and your Labs return smiling and covered in green poo - stinking to high heaven - you know they have discovered the unmentionably horrid Mother Lode.  And they've rolled in it. 

Excited about the prize they've found they're bound to shake - and share it with you.

This too shall pass however.  In the interim we're prepared.  There's a janitors slop sink in the garage, hot and cold running water from the hose, pooch shampoo, rubber gloves and a big porch for the girls to sleep it off in the sun.

We use a great deal of Odor Gone in our household.  If you purchase any tell them that Gas sent you.

My stinky girls...

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