Thursday 23 July 2009

The automatic dog wash at the car wash.




We live at the end of what the Italians call a 'strada bianca' or more prosaically a farm track. At this time of the year the sun has dried out the dirt and every excursion in the car creates large billowing clouds of fine dust as we speed up and down the hill - rather like the effect that one used to see behind stage coaches in movie westerns of a certain era. Yesterday I was sent down to the car wash in the local town to get a thick layer of accreted mud washed off the rear window. As I was contentedly washing away with a power jet I looked up to find that a self service dog and cat washing system has been installed in one of the bays. The animal goes in at one end and comes out at the other washed,rinsed and blow dried. I can't imagine that Wilf and Digby would take well to the idea of a quick trip down the road to wash the car and shampoo the dogs.Mark you I can't imagine Wilf or Digby being happy at the thought of any actvity that involves water.
The next door neighbour came down in his antique combine harvester to give the lupins their second cut and collect the stems for winter cattle feed. It's proven to be a good crop requiring little care, no fertilizer, returning a good yield and all the time looking pretty.The two boyz were delighted to have the farmers company for the requisite ball games but had to be put into the courtyard once the harvesting proper started.
Their confinement was eased by a new play thing. The 'font' brought the boyz a new toy back from a recent shopping trip to the Harrods dog store. It is a soft fluffy sheep with a squeaker inside. Wilf has taken a great liking to it and even managed to smuggle it upstairs last night - a major no no. Thankfully these toys are designed with squeakers that last for two or three minutes before they are crushed by the relentless chomping of a sheepdogs jaw. Why is it no one has invented a squeaker in a dogs toy that can last for more than a few minutes? You would think the dog toy manufacturers might have figured it out by now.


4 comments:

kks said...

the dog/cat wash, how funny! do they really go in one end and out the other...like a car?! even though my goldens like water, i think the dog wash would freak them out!
the squeakers last only a few minutes so they don't drive the humans nuts!! :)

Rocky Creek Scotties and Rocky Creek Ramblings said...

That cat/dog wash is too funny. You'd have to tranquilize my Scotties before that would ever happen.

Lynn

Angus said...

I shall go and explore the device more closely when I'm next down in town washing my wheel arches. Forget about the dogs I think I'd be the one needing tranquilizers after using it. Wilf and Digby find the lawnmower frightening - what they'd make of an automatic washing machine I dread to think!

Whispering Walls said...

You could send the sheep on a trial run?