DOG DAYS OF JULY

As most of us know already this summer the weather has been passing strange. Not to mention horrible. It has been one of the muggiest summers I can remember and I remember a few.

The Basset 500 has been re-invented in the rental house. Inside. The track is on the bare laminate floor so as to get the greatest effect from the sounds of nails hitting the floor and the echo of the ahroos as they circle the dining room table. We are so impressed with the impermeability of the flooring to dog nails that we are going to install it in the real house, if and when we get that far.

Sunning has been adapted to climate change as well, now being no longer than 5 or 10 minutes on the incredibly hot cement before they want back into the air conditioning. This morning, for the first time in a week, the A/C is off. Probably not for long. The dewpoint is creeping up to match the temperature outside and the breeze I had at 5 a.m. has dissipated.

In between, the boys have found ways to express themselves.

                            The Coopster, asleep. (He really was.)

Wait. What was that flash?

YOU! Leave me alone!!

The nose is always at the front and always working whether it appears to be or not.

Less apt to miss something when it is rightside up.

Some of us, of course, assume we will awaken instantly, no matter what: