A SUMMER HOLIDAY - 2005

A Burr-y Bad Time

One evening this summer during our holiday, my husband took Littlest Lunatic & Angie out for a walk beside the Alaska Highway. Because I was working Pix, I took her the opposite direction. When we both got back to our campground, hubby wandered off somewhere, leaving me with the dogs. I happened to spot some burrs on Angie & Pix. Well, that was soon fixed because both have very hard coats. A quick whisk of a comb through the furnishings, pick a couple of errant burrs out of the beards and both were happy.

Furnishings still intact. Courtenay is sitting on the couch in the RV surrounded by toys.
Who else do you know carries a car-load of toys for their dogs when they travel?

Hmmmmm, I think with a shudder, I wonder if LL has burrs. I look around. Littlest Lunatic is spotted up on our bed as far away from me as she can get and still be in our RV. She is picking at her legs and devouring something. Her ears are tied in a knot, a sure sign that things are not going well. I clamber up and, to my horror, discover that LL's luxurious woolly furnishings are stuck tight to her skin. She has somehow attracted hundreds of burrs! Every time she digs one out, ten others adhere even more tightly to her coat. She is considerably agitated and in a great deal of pain. She is virtually wringing her paws and her poor sightless little eyes are bugging out.

Combing, brushing or otherwise grooming Littlest Lunatic can at best be described as a tricky occupation. A full groom normally requires two people, one clippering like mad, the other supplying a small fortune in liver treats. Knowing this and looking at all these burrs made my heart sink right to my toes.

However, Littlest Lunatic could not be left in agony so I retrieved the comb and began to extract the seeds. Jim turned up and, upon being made aware of the catastrophe facing us, collected the other comb. Thanks heavens I usually have two of everything in case one gets lost!

Having discovered that a great many burrs had found their way into our bedding, we moved her down to the couch and kept gently working the burrs out. It took us until nearly 1:00 a.m. to finish the job. Poor little LL wriggled & squirmed but you could see she was trying so very hard to keep still so we could help her. Twice she jumped down and shivered all over. The deburring operation must have hurt terribly.

The next day we sadly clippered LL's magnificent furnishings down with a #4 blade. By then, she had had enough of being groomed, thank you, and behaved like her usual difficult self. Gnawing on my elbow while I was wielding the clipper was the least of her transgressions! The problems were compounded because we did not have a grooming table with us. My grooming noose was Jim who stood on the picnic table put into use as a groomer venue, holding a LL's leash straight up in a death grip.

Hiding out in the bedroom just after the burrs were removed. We are NOT a happy camper!

Fortunately, we had the foresight to pack a large supply of liver treats! Our antics with LL provided much entertainment for our fellow campers who gathered around to see the crazy Airedale people busily mutilating their dog's lovely coat. LL obligingly yowled like she was being killed to provide even further merriment. To everyone's delight, Angie & Pix joined in the chorus. It sounded like a rerun of The Sopranos!

For the remainder of the holiday, poor Littlest Lunatic scampered about on tiny little spider legs. The good news was that burrs subsequently encountered found the newly-clippered furnishings unattractive. The bad news was that everyone who saw Littlest Lunatic also found her unattractive and burst into gales of laughter. The even worse news was that, for the duration of the trip, I couldn't get the burrs out of our berber blanket! My husband claims to still bear the scars . . . .

Skinny legs & all! Photo was taken in the northern Rockies at Summit Lake. Blurring is fog, not a bad photo exposure. Jim had just taken little Miss Lunatic on a ten-kilometer hike. He was bagged. She was ready to hit the road again!

Court is wearing her Big Country rain coat bought in Oregon last May. Pix has a purple one and Ange has a blue one.

Sometimes I really wonder why we go on holidays!

Maureen & the ridiculous Circus