Happy Easter! Pass the Febreeze, please?

Today marks the last day of our mini-vacation/first weekend of the Georgia Renaissance festival/invasion of my sister's house. I have been puppy sitting as well as visiting and serving as the director of the HOEF, and it's been very interesting. I have kept Simon before but at MY house...I've never traveled with him before now.

The dogs and I headed out Friday afternoon about 5:30 on our journey with a brief stopover in Six Mile to pick up Simon. Six Mile is a small town near Clemson, and there is no fast way to get there (as is true for many small towns in South Carolina). While Simon was happy to see visitors and even happier to sniff my dogs, his long time buddies, when it came time to get in the car he wasn't having any of it. I ended up lifting him into the car and coming away with more fur on ME than he had on him I think...

The ride to Atlanta was fine. There were only a few GRRRS and of course they happened when I was on the phone with my mother, giving her more reason to think that my dogs are dangerous. I'm telling you, the only dangerous thing about the furry head currently pressed up against my leg on the sofa is what happens if he eats anything with soy in it...see previous post about Unka Dave's nose.

Thursday night went well, better than I thought it would. The four dogs and I shuffled off into the guest room at about 1am and once I got them placed on beds I didn't hear another peep out of them till morning. Susan had a Good Friday service during the day Friday so Dave and I went to get me third leather leash for the festival Saturday and left the dogs here. They did SO well...except for the gas.

Holy geezominey, I'd forgotten just what "grain-fed" farts smell like. My word! Febreeze!!!

Friday night I decided that Hunky's foot was just not ready to handle the gravel at GARF (and that since some of the folks I thought were coming didn't), so I would just go over and make sure that my new folks were set and ready to go and then I'd come back to Dave and Susan's. I took Simon and Jeany with me, and at one point opened the back window of the Hounda so that the folks could meet them. "Won't they jump out?" Doug says. "Oh no," I respond, the confident face of a long time dog owner shining. "Jeany doesn't like to get out if it's dirty and Simon barely got in the car, I don't think he'd jump out with the tail gate up."

Then I turned away from the car, and suddenly became wrong.

Luckily Doug caught the flying brindle blur that swept past my right ear and landed, ever so gracefully, with his nose in the heinder of Doug's pretty little brindle girl.

I got back to Dave and Susan's and Dave and I ran over to Cokesbury, a store I remember going to as a child...it's a kind of a supply store for clergy. After that, we met his friend Ben for lunch in East Atlanta at a bar/pub called The Earl. Best grilled cheese I've had in a while...and Dave and Ben just kept me laughing the entire time.

Today is Easter, and this morning the hounds woke me up around 8:30. I took them out and fixed their breakfast. By the way, if you feed raw, there really is no substitute for it. Kibbles that don't have grains in them have other FAR MORE STINKY things in them to bind the ingredients together. And if you think they are stinky going in... Pass the Febreeze. After they ate, they sort of scattered as I was rinsing out the dishes so I went looking...and found that our visiting hound, Simon, had made a little bit of a mess...in mulitple rooms of the house as well as perfuming Susan and Dave's room. I should own stock in Febreeze.

We're heading for home after lunch with a brief stop in Six Mile to leave Simon. Next weekend we'll do it all over again, but this time without the fourth pupper and definitely without the kibble. I'm thinking I should bring them a bottle of Febreeze, though, just in case...