When you look at the photo above you see a two-year-old smiling Mama Pajama, covered in mud, running.
This morning if I had somehow been able to video her in the dark, in the pouring rain, you would pretty much have seen the same thing. She hasn't done a zoomie in weeks. First we had the bitter cold and ice forever. Then she did an accidental splits with her hind legs on the hard wood floor, which made her yelp, made me cry, and left her spooked.
Today it is balmy. In true Western Kentucky style, the winter solstice (hooray for days getting longer and lighter and inching towards Spring!) dawns warm, muggy, and sodden. Mama Pajama was never a fan of damp in her youth, hence my delight with her grin captured in the photo; when a lure was involved, she noticed nothing else. In her dotage, she has become unawares. She stands in a deluge, la la la, and I put on my shoes to retrieve her. Come on sweetheart, you are getting rained on. Time for dinner, or breakfast, or bed.
Mama Pajama had attempted one zoomie, before the splits, when the yard was covered in ice, and she smacked into the fence on her first spin. Want your heart to shatter like your very most precious Christmas ornament dropped in slow motion from the top branch? Have your very most precious sixteen year old dog smack her head into the fence mid-spin and then turn her unbelieving eyes to yours and ask, "Why did you do that to me? I was only having a bit of fun."
Damned stupid fucking ice.
But yay for today! This morning, the ice has finally surrendered, and my old dog is back to trusting her hind legs. Yay for the pouring rain and mud and muck! Mama Pajama leapt off the breezeway and splashed in her crazy reigning horse spins, around and around, this way and that, running willy-nilly with eyes blazing. She stopped, still in butt-up play bow pose, and smiled at me. And this was no drizzle! Thunder lightning downpour. She came into the kitchen with mud all up her four legs, splashed on her underbelly, and even splattered on her back and her face.
Merry Christmas to me!
Happy solstice to you!
Hug your hounds...