Kind of a red-letter day...

After weeks and weeks of a tiredness seeped into the bone, and after months of being sick to the point of vomiting at the idea of going back yet again to see my rheumatologist (supposedly every three months, but I hadn't seen him in almost a year), I went.  Told him I got up in the morning wishing it was night and time to go back to bed, so he gave me a muscle relaxant that has enabled me to sleep and not feel like the aftermath of some kind of train wreck when I get up.

The upshot is that I can now take both dogs out most mornings for a nice 5k walk/trot (I walk, they trot), and we manage to trot, all of us, about two kilometers. 

Lusso is growing up to be the sweetest dog on the face of the earth, although not everyone enjoys his worshipful, pink-nosed, drooling attention.  He doesn't drool all the time, but his beard soaks up water when he drinks and spreads it around the floor, your lap, legs, and shoes. 

The only problem we have with him is his allergy to flea bites.  Systemic flea treatment for both dogs means fleas don't reproduce in the house, but it can't keep fleas off the dog if they are picked up from the birds, 'possums, and stray cats that enter the yard.

It has been an incredible amount of work; Lusso needs to be bathed with a soothing shampoo that reduces his need to scratch.  Otherwise he might have to have cortisone, which has potentially severe side effects over time.  So I opt for the bath deal.  Lusso finally will get into the tub I have in the laundry room with a modicum of cooperation, but once in, he is resigned.  I have a telephone-type shower head that makes things easier, but this weekend we were at the quinta, which has no tub of any kind at all, not even a tin washtub.  The dogs adore the quinta because they can run and run forever, find fascinating smells, hunt to their hearts' content--and Lusso gets dirtier than any dog I have ever seen or heard of. 

Not only that, after his bath and before he hits the hunting trail at the quinta, he has to be sprinkled with flea powder in an effort to keep fleas off him, or sprayed with cedar oil which acts as a repellent. 

When we were ready to think about coming back to town, Lusso was so dirty that it was unthinkable getting him into the car.  So, in a definite first for me, I took a shower with my dog.  Lusso is a water retriever, and he doesn't hate the water even though I have yet to get him into the swimming pool, so the shower was a success and I managed to get him thoroughly clean with his special shampoo.  Not only that, it was SO much easier getting him into the shower than over the edge of the laundry room tub.  Nevertheless, it isn't something I plan to do routinely.  There is something slightly disconcerting about standing naked under the shower with a wet dog watching you.  Makes you feel kinda fat, flabby, drooping, and very out of shape...