Is it really snowing?
We had an absolutely wonderful weekend, for April - Mid 80’s for temperatures, and yet, at our house it snowed. Well, it wasn’t snow exactly, but when you look at it from the road, my side yard is covered in white. Upon closer inspection, you’ll see that what looks like snow is really hair. Dog hair. It was hot, so we decided to shave both Great Pyrenees. You’ve heard me talking about how much hair they have as they are shedding - but when you shave them (which we do with sheep shears, by the way), you really see the hair. I kid you not, it’s a patch of ground probably 15 feet by 15 feet with almost 3 inches of hair on it. And what is even more hilarious than to see the snow, is to watch the dogs and the cats when we do this.
Maybe I was just hyper sensitive about it because I started thinking about writing this, but it seems the dogs were extremely embarrassed by the de-hairing almost immediately. They both stood by resolutely while we did the shaving, but once released galloped across the yard and rolled in the grass. The funniest thing is to watch Rocky - who is used to having this incredible pom-pom like tail above his back, now seeing this thing that looks like a rat tail over his back. He looks at it like, “OMG what the heck is that?” Then he realizes it’s his tail when he sniffs it, and goes about his business, until he spots it again later, and goes through that all over again. Even the cats have been on alert, “What strange dog has mom allowed in the house today? Hummm, it doesn’t smell like a strange dog…. but I’m not going to get too close.”
Anyone who’s seen Rocky knows he’s a huge dog - and while we keep telling people he only weighs about 120 pounds no one believes us - well, stop in to see the huge “rats” (as Rachael calls them) and without hair, you’ll see why he only weighs 120. You’ll be surprised that he still has huge feet, and a huge head, but has really nice long graceful legs and is really a nice fit, and trim dog under all that hair.
It’s just a shame we couldn’t make a fur coat out of that hair - but at least the birds are happy as they hop around picking up clumps of hair bigger than they are…. They are saying, “Wow, what nice nest lining this will make - and our eggs will stay so warm, even if it snows.” Seriously, I heard them all…..