Frogger

Our rescue pup has suffered from skin irritation and a staph infection since we got her. She is on the mend now with her antibiotics and the topical cream we're putting on her, but we really thought she could use a bath with this special hydrocortisone wash.

As you can see here, her tummy and little chest is woefully bald and she's missing the feathering your normally see in goldens between their knees and toes and their elbows and paws. We still think she's beautiful, of course.

Dante actually came to us with his coat in a similar condition, due to him having an advanced case of heartworms. With a lot of petting, brushing, and worship from his fan club, he now has feathering so fantastic we've actually been stopped while walking for people to comment on it. I can only hope we'll be so lucky with Shelley once she's healthy.

So, back to the story. It's now bath time. I had to wait for my husband to come home from work, knowing that this would be a two-person job. We suspected that she liked water (unlike Dante) since every time we water the trees, she sticks her face into the sprinkler and drinks mightily.

We were not prepared for HOW MUCH she likes water. We started her off with just a mist, then a stronger spray, with her cavorting around the spray, jumping up to bite it, and running into the yard and rolling around in the grass (thankfully avoiding the landmines).

So we get her lathered up and she decides she would like the spend the rest of bath time and drying off time on her back. She was just languishing under the spray and the massage of the medicine onto her tummy. Truly adorable.

But this post is titled "Frogger". Before the bath, we put Shelley outside and got Dante settled inside with a peanut butter kong. As we walk outside, this thing comes FLYING into the house and sticks itself to the cabinet.

It was the creature we have taken to referring to as "That F---ing Frog" around these parts. My dogs STALK frogs, and the last thing I need is to take one of them to the emergency vet for dining on French cuisine, right?? This frog is always stuck somewhere prominently outside, just out of their reach, and they hop, whine and obsess over it while it remains stuck, paralyzed in fear.

Or hell, for all I know it could be more than one frog. It could be a whole colony of them. It doesn't matter, it had invaded the house. We got very creative in its capture, capturing it on the wall with gladware, then sliding it to the edge of the wall where we could slide the lid over the top.

Believe it or not, this was the second solution Chris proposed. Any large bugs in the house, he just vacuums up. I would not allow that cruelty to occur to this frog, who is surely more sentient than a roach.

After capture, Chris was gone for about 10 minutes, finding the right neighbor's yard to drop the frog off in. At least...that's just what he said he was doing.