The old dog-days of summer

After days of near one-hundred degree highs, we've been told this is the last of a series of hot days... at least for now.  We've mostly stayed in the house, of course.  But I've had a job outside to do, driven by this awful heat.

The grandson and his lady, Alexandria, have two doodle dogs.  Actually they are supposed to be Alex's dogs, but the first one, Klouse, won my grandson over, along with anybody else that meets him.  He just loves people.  All he wants is to be near his people.  His friend Bonnie is very different.  She likes to go to the fence that separates our property from the neighbors and run with the horses... she on her side of the fence, the horses on the other.  The neighbors don't care because their German Shepherds run the horses too, so they're used to it.  But most of the time Bonne is not far from Klouse, and Klouse is usually around his favorite people.

When the kids are home, the dogs are in their house.  However, the dogs weren't taught much as youngsters, so if they are left in the house without a human, Klouse eats furniture, woodwork, you name it... whatever he can find.  So they have a part of the barn where they stay when their master and mistress go to work.  There's a fan in there, and a nice yard they can play in.  Unfortunately, it isn't a place for any animal when the temps are around 100.  So, Cliff and I let them out by 10 A.M. on these hot days and they stay mostly in Cliff's shop with the doors open, in front of two fans.  So far they haven't gone wandering around the neighborhood.  We take turns going down and checking on them; Cliff has no business being outside in the heat for any length of time, but he takes a turn or two at it.

Earlier in the summer Arick and Alex got a kiddie pool and filled it with water for the dogs.  Klouse would splash down and roll in the water, then get out and shake it off; Bonnie will stand in the pool, but that's all.  Somehow the kiddie pool got damaged, and by the time the kids went for another, they were all sold.  Today the dogs saw me come outside and joined me for a bit.  I felt so sorry for them, I got the hose out and tried to spray them.  Well, that didn't work; they were scared of it.  

I'm sorry for them, but they are too big and rowdy to be in my trailer house; besides, Gabe is jealous and follows them around growling at them for invading his home.  If only they had learned some manners, they could be in their own house when their master and mistress are away.

So I worry.  I just now walked out to the shop and took a picture through the window so they wouldn't know I was there.

 Don't hate me, please.  If they were my dogs, they'd be in kennels in the air conditioned house when nobody was going to be home.  That's what we do with Gabe; it's all he knows, and he's perfectly happy to be there.

Just a few more hours of this and they'll be comfy.

Aha!  The grandson is home early, mowing the yard.  My job is done.

For some reason I'm thinking of a song called "Too Cold at Home".