Welcome to summer – maybe..

Saturday and the temperature today is due to be 41c with a cool change later in the afternoon. A severe weather warning was issued by the SA Police with the possibility of an electrical storm and the potential for  lightening strikes setting off fires.  I sometimes believe my dog thinks I  don’t love him anymore. I mean surely if I loved him I would take him out in the car with me – right?  Well,  no!  When it’s 41c outside it is going to be at least 50c in the car and even  with the windows cracked open, if you leave a dog in a car in those temperatures  he/she could go into heat stress and they could die very quickly – but of course you know this. Benji does not understand. He only knows that I am going out and not taking him with me – and I get that pained look that some dogs are very good at. And hardly a month goes by when a person does just that and leaves a dog in a hot car. But it’s not all bad in that people are now becoming more aware of the dangers of leaving a dog in a car on a very hot day and if they see this, they notify authorities – RSPCA or SA Police. Oh and by the way, this is not confined to dogs, people have gone in to shops,

and other places,leaving a child in the car and last year, sadly,  several children died.     In essence, if I go out today, and I will – Benji will not be coming with me and I’ll get “The Look” If we had been on our own, we might have gone down to the beach and had a walk in the sea but Yogi is not as well-mannered as Benji and barks at anything that moves. Perhaps after Yogi goes home – in five days – the Benji and I will  drive down to the Foreshore and have an Ice-Cream treat. I think he deserves it – not only does he have a WaWa to contend with, he has also had Yogi for a month. He has a small tub, I have a cornetto  and we sit outside under the shade of an umbrella.

Still Saturday and the temperature peaked at 42c: now the cool change predicted has come charging in with high winds – cooling down fast and some driving rain. We are expecting thunderstorm and possibly lightening  in the late evening. No dog walks and I will have to keep an eye on Yogi – he does not like thunder. Benji and the WaWa seem not to bother too much. Actually as I try to type a certain dog who shall remain nameless is sitting on my lap making life difficult because he thinks  I should be scratching his ears not making a noise on keyboard.  Before summer started and it was still raining – a lot – I bought Benji a waterproof coat. It was not a success. On the subject of not a success – the plants I bought  at the beginning of the week are all dead. I tried to get them established before the heat set in but it still killed them. The rain has gone but there is still a wind and the temperature has

dropped down to 30c a drop of 12 degrees in less than an hour.

Happiness is a fresh-smelling warm blanket! We decided that the blanket on the WaWa bed was a bit grubby looking so at about  8 o’ clock  last night we threw it in the washing machine. Washed and spun, I then took it out to the garage and the drier and  put it in there for an hour. It  came out all warm and fluffy ( reminder to clean the  fluff catcher on the machine), folded up and back on her bed in time for bed-time.

Sunday  a.m.  and it’s raining so no walk this morning. Well it did stop and we did go out and I did get as far as the end of the Carport before it came down again, so back into the house we went. I figured that they had been “out” so I did give them their after walks treat – I know, I’m a woose.