Loki Goes on a Picnik(.com)

A few more examples of what you can do when you take your pictures on a Picnik.

Here we have Loki, our water dog. This was taken one of his many photo-ops during a hurricane this fall. We didn't have any damage, just loads of rain and rivers of mud. The rivers of mud were in our house. Courtesy of Loki.

Note: I really do love my kids; however, my dogs are much more cooperative when it comes to sitting for pictures.








After I've cropped the picture a little, taken care of the doggy red eye, and given the colors a bit of a boost, I'm just about good to go. I added a frame and legend, and now my handsome muddy guy is just as handsome as can be.

I especially like that he looks a lot less like a devil dog and a lot more like a dog who realizes that he may have done something wrong. Please note the half-hearted grin.








Speaking of handsome, this picture was taken the day after we brought Loki home. What a beautiful baby he was! I wanted to crop out the shaven spot on his tummy (he'd had a hernia repaired before we adopted him) and focus on his face in all its rounded babyness.







Presto change-o! Doesn't this picture just melt your heart? If it does, may I refer you to pictures one and two? If you're going to love a golden retriever, you have to have a high tolerance for dirt, destruction ... and devastating cuteness.

A Retriever Is a Water Dog

Tropical storm Hanna arrived in Delaware today, bringing buckets of rain.

Annie, our alpha dog, does not like rain, although she does love being dried off with a big towel. She's very ladylike and stays nice and clean.

Loki, on the other hand, loves being out in the rain. He loves coming in out of the rain. Sadly, he loves coming in out of the rain after he's been joyously digging in a hole full of muddy water.

At left you can see what I'll call Exhibit A. Please note that Loki's entire head is coated with mud. Cast your eyes downward and notice that his front paws are in a little mud puddle.

In our next picture, Exhibit B, we see Loki's calling card at the back door.








Exhibit C: Our happy, happy dog. After I took this picture, I used the towel in the background to try to reduce the impending damage to our floors, walls, furniture, and everything else in our house.

The towel went from a dusty rose to a chocolate brown, and pretty dang quickly, too.

As I type this at my desk, our little angel is curled up on a pile of formerly clean laundry on the floor near my feet. He's just looked over at his shoulder at me and blinked a couple times, before turning back around and getting down to the serious business of napping.

I am just so glad that housekeeping is so far down my list of priorities. On a day like today, you can get your knickers in a bunch and lose your temper pretty easily when you have a retriever. You could, however, resign yourself to a lot of laundry and related clean up and make sure you have photographic evidence. SpecialEd and I both had a serious case of deja vu: our Tucker did nearly the the same thing when he was Loki's age. The only difference was that nearly every inch of Tucker was coated with mud. Thoughtful, thoughtful Loki!

Dog Days of Summer

When you have a water dog and you don't have wild water nearby, you improvise. Loki approves of his wading pool. He loves to jump in and out all day. He's happy. We're happy.

Unfortunately, Loki's not too good about wiping his feet before he gets in the pool. What you see here is the cleanest this water has been. Ever. He doesn't mind. We do.

Before we had kids, our house was reasonably clean. After all, we only had two cats, and they were fairly good about keeping the dirt to a minimum. We won't discuss the hair, shall we?

Once we had Skimbleshanks, the house was relatively clean, but pretty much kid-ravaged. Oh, well, we said. We added Buddha boy and a miscellany of dogs over the years. Our house became lived in. You know, the kind of house where you'd feel comfortable pulling your feet up under you while you sat on the couch.

This weekend, I washed the couch cushion covers and vacuumed their usual home. The horror! The horror! Dog hair, treat wrappers shoved down the cracks, two remotes we haven't seen in months, pens, pencils, highlighters, a tiny marble, plain old dirt. Our vacuum threw up. I was relentless and without mercy: I put in a fresh bag.

Next up is the vinyl and hardwood. They seemed like such good choices once upon a time. Now, not so much.

The dog days of summer may mean something else to most people, but to me, it means: those dogs ... what a life they lead. The phrase "leaving a trail of destruction in their wake" leaps to mind.

Loki, the Lord of Mischief

Meet Loki, our newest addition. The runt of a massive litter (14, I believe), Loki joined us just a week ago Saturday evening. Even though this guy is 4 months old, he's still kind of small, but long and lean (note the daffodil for scale).

Loki's already been through the mill. He had a hernia that rapidly grew from the size of a peanut to the size of a softball. Fortunately, his breeder is a kind, compassionate man and elected to have the hernia repaired ending the problem, shall we say, permanently.

When I was growing up, one dog (or one cat) was the norm. Somehow, once I became an adult, I started living with animals in multiples:

• Ted and Foster Grant (cats)
  
• Foster Grant and Spot (cats)
  
• Spot and Django (cats)
• Spot, Django, and Skimbleshanks (two cats and a boy [who is still with us])
  
• Spot, Django, and Tucker (cats and a dog)
  
• Django and Tucker (cat and dog)
• Tucker and Buddha Boy (a dog and another boy [who is also still with us])
  
• Tucker and Squeak (dogs)
  
• Tucker, Squeak, and Sadie (large, small, and medium dogs -- interesting times!)
• Tucker and Sadie (dogs)
  
• Tucker and Annie (dogs)
  
• Annie and Loki (dogs)
  

With each new member of our animal family, we don't want to replace the animal we've lost. Rather, we want to add a new personality who will bring her or his own unique charms into the chaos of our home. Each one has been much loved and by us all.

OK, I've just given a battery recharge to Loki. I'm sitting in an armchair with my laptop on my lap. He climbed up and gave me the best cuddle. SpecialEd took some pictures, and I may just post one, because this new kid is just so gosh-darn cute!

Tucker would be so happy to know that we've recovered from our sorrow at losing him and chosen the joy of more golden years.