The dog days of summer

After some very autumn-like weather last week (rainy and downright chilly some mornings), we’re back to mid- to upper- 90 temperatures (F) this week. This has led to some extremely lazy behavior on the part of Laika and myself. Mosly involving laying on the couch and watching the Olympics. Thank you Eurosport 24-hour coverage.

Today on Laika’s mid-day walk, we were slowly cruising around Golden Gate when the sprinklers came on in the park. This summer, Laika has learned that she LOVES sprinklers. Almost as much as she LOVES chewing on my arm when I don’t want to take her for a walk. So we heard the sound of sprinklers and before I even knew what had happened, she had jumped over the little fence separating the path from the gardens and sprinted over to the closest sprinker that had popped out of the ground. And she stood there in the spray with her eyes closed, mouth open, and nose pointed to the heavens. Just watching her pure enjoyment of that experience was enough to make me forget myself and just be happy. Ahhh.

As we moved through the park, visiting all the sprinklers (yes, she needed to spend some time with all of them), we attracted quite a group of babushky that followed us around proclaiming over her cuteness. It was a little awkward with the first one because I had no idea what she was saying, but as soon as another one joined, they were talking together and I just became a part of the show. What a good dog! What an excellent dog! What a beautiful dog! Laika stared at them blankly as their cooing rudely interrupted her enjoyment of the sprinklers. I tried to leave once, but they all ganged up on me. She’s enjoying herself! You must let her play! Finally, they wandered off to poke a baby or something and Laika and I were free to make our way back home.