Rain, Rain....

This is what it has been doing here ever since Sunday:

The only difference is that the cats and dogs in this house do NOT have big smiles on their faces. They are bored, bored, bored. Lady has been employing that dramatic sigh of hers. Sometimes it means "oh, I'm so tired" or "Lucky is in my bed and that's just not right." Today it means "I am about to die from boredom."

Last night we broke out the treat balls, which were good for about a half hour of entertainment. You poke treats and food down into a hole on one side of the ball, and the dog has to roll it around to get the treats to fall out the other side. Lady is a master at this. She picks it up and goes running off into the living room with it, getting all her treats out while Lucky is still nosing the ball around the kitchen floor trying to make the first few drop out. Poor Lucky always needs a designated bodyguard until he's finished, because Lady thinks that finishing first means you get to steal the other dog's ball.

But you can only entertain the dogs with treat balls every so often, otherwise they become ball-shaped themselves. So today, alas, it's just boring. On days like today I envy those people with little bitty dogs. They can give their dogs a complete workout just by tossing a ball up and down the hall.

My sister once came up with the term "dog rot" to describe the state of utter dog boredom. She and her husband were reseeding the grass in the backyard, so Molly the boxer had to stay indoors and off the grass. Molly must have been pretty bored, because my sister called to tell me she was suffering from dog rot. That totally cracked me up - "dog rot" is a perfect way to describe it; I knew exactly what she meant. It should be noted that the state of dog rot is accompanied by lots of human guilt that the dog is not getting enough exercise or mental stimulation.

Here is what dog rot looks like at our house today:

And here is Lucy today. For some reason cats never look bored, only cozy.

Even though the dogs are bored, I can't bring myself to complain about the rain. It's been a very dry winter, so all this rain just as things are starting to bud out has brought joy to my gardener's heart. And at least it's not snow. If all this rain had fallen as snow, we'd be buried up to our eyebrows. So it could be worse. Meanwhile, if any of you out there have ideas for keeping big dogs entertained indoors, feel free to pass them along!

P.S. Special note for "E and A" - do you see all those toys scattered around the living room floor? We need "toy-putting-away" lessons from Miss M!

P.P.S. Regarding the "P.S." above - for those of you who are interested, check out the video in the post below. I was SO impressed!!!   http://pittiesincity.blogspot.com/2011/03/pooches-dog-chores.html

**UPDATE:  Did I say "at least it's not snowing?" Well, the Friday morning update is that it's snowing sideways with a 20 degree windchill. The forsythia and daffodils are looking mighty cold.