The situation can cause fear, trepidation and angst in the hearts of all dog owners. It can reduce Mr. Clean to a whimpering mass of tears and frustration, take the Joy out of boxes of Cheer, and leave a container of Tide high 'n dry. What is this cataclysmic event that can wreak such havoc on a household? Why, the dreaded mud season, of course.

After the homestead received several inches of rain on huge barren areas that was once a lush green lawn, our four dogs (Lyric, Lily & Declan, all Shelties and a tri-color Collie named Dougie) are now able to create fantastic sprays of mud all over themselves, have their feet thoroughly encrusted in the stuff and overall make our lives miserable in that we need to clean 'em off before we dare let 'em venture back into the house once again.

The back porch where we perform our cleaning ritual looks like one of those scenes from a cleaning product commercial where some smiling housewife is laughing to herself 'cause her kids were playing in puddles and now she's got to clean them up before they mess her house. We somehow don't find the humor in this situation.

We await the lingering presence of the sun god Ra, who will soon shine down upon puddles and mud, drying up all as rays of warm, golden sunshine emblazon across the landscape.

Until then, we gotta suck it up and perform the back-breaking job of cleaning the pack that must "go out" every few hours, most of the time to simply get caked with mud all over again!

---