Rain Wanted Rain Received

The yard and new grass seed on the side from the utility pole to almost the street, needed rain. My backyard needed rain .. and rain we have received. Woke up to the loud noise of thunder and the bedroom lighting up with bright lightning in the dark bedroom. The hounds and dogs slept right through that noise just like the fireworks on the night of July 4th.

This is about all they did on the 4th ... then early evening finally was able to get outside. We heard large fireworks from the south and west of us. Henry, Watson, Ava and I walked around the backyard trying to get the best angle to possibly see them amongst the trees. We were not successful. Still they all stood on the patio deck listening to the noise as I started to come back inside.

I think out of all the years I have had hounds, Ava maybe have found the premium position to sleep in front of cold air from the air conditioning vent. Her leg is healing good. It is past the drainage stage. 

This is from Saturday morning. Some slight signs of draining but over all looks good. I think it might be a little swollen but it's hard to tell because it is right on her knee. It hasn't slowed her down at all, she doesn't mind the cone but I can't wait until it comes off by the end of the month, after she is spayed on the 17th.

I was able to get some hound and dog toenails cut yesterday. Henry is never a problem and as soon has he sniffs the clippers he will roll over on his back. Walter surprised me. He actually let me lift his paws and cut "blindly", meaning I was not lowering low enough to look at the bottom of his black nails, just cutting it off by distance from the tip. I was able to get only one of two back paws trimmed, I will attempt the other one today.

Watson ... an all out fight. He use to just sit there but now, no way. Once he was laying on his side and I lifted his paw easily, war was started and ended with a huge scratch across my inner forearm as he jumped up and ran away. I don't ever remember cutting his nails to short, where he would have experienced pain.

Later this morning he sat up next to my chair after taking a nap. While I patted him on the head talking to him he laid back down and on his own lifted his front paw up to my hand. As I test I held his paw, rubbed the pads and squeezed his paw to see if there was any pain ... none. Yet when I started to grab his toenail with my thumb and finger to hold it ... he yanked his paw away and lowered his leg back down to the floor.

I discovered an old way of keeping the hounds and now dogs busy. I use to do this when I was a at work or at the store or away from the house. I did it the other day when I left Ava in her crate while I went to the store for food. There is one black Kong Ball missing, it was here yesterday and will be filled up with broken pieces of Kirkland dog bones like this small ball and the large ball that Watson took as soon as it hit the floor.

Like always, when food is in the scent range of Henry ... he is interested. 

So I have two filled balls and four dogs. And .....

Henry was going to make sure nobody got his smaller ball and hid it somewhere in the bedroom.

Most likely they will not get them out, but they can smell them and taste them when they lick that hole in the bottom of the ball.

Once Watson took a break to get some fresh water, Henry sprints to the yard and brings Watson's ball back into the shade and protects it. He was growling whenever Watson got near his ball. 

Ava wasn't too concerned about the ball, she wanted to stay cool in the shade ... That knee does look swollen and I have sent this photo to my vet to see if it is still looking okay. Like I said earlier, it's hard to tell since that is right on her knee.

Walter thought about going outside to see what all the excitement was about the Kong Ball, but really all he cares about in the summer is sleep, food, water and air conditioning. He would not face the camera when I called his name and as soon as he heard the click of the shutter button, he turned and trotted for his cool sleeping spot in the hallway.

I might mow later. Temps are cooler today. My leg is getting better and is back to normal size except for a good size lump left of the shin bone. Very little pain and the second day in a row the foot, ankle and leg is back to normal size. I did a little test ride on my mountain bike up the hill and over to my fiend's house.

It might be, not sure, a two blog post day here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana today.