Record Thursday

Stanton Harcourt recorded a temperature of 35.8 degrees this afternoon. It was the hottest day ever recorded in July. It took me back to the extreme conditions we experienced with our first litter which jumped out of the whelping box shortly before the epic floods in July 2007. The Lodge was an island amidst a sea of water. I was stranded here with our younger daughter and her Austrian exchange friend, 7 puppies, their mother, Dido, and water on all sides.

Today the pups and I have indulged in water play on multiple occasions. Sadly my phone camera and water don’t mix so I could not record all the scenes which made me laugh out loud. Earlier in the day I picked each puppy up and placed him/her carefully in the “paddling pool”, wetting their coats a bit to help cool them. They weren’t quite sure what I was up to but by this afternoon they had learned to stamp their feet in the water and splash out at their siblings. At one point I had 5 of them in the tin all trying to outdo each other in the splashing stakes! They have now taken to drinking from the hose as I constantly refill the water bowls and paddling tin. They are definitely water dogs!

I did manage to capture a brief clip of the water play though: you will see Nina in the foreground jumping up to attract my attention. How could I not notice her?!