A quiet holiday

We had no plans for today.  I had no hikes planned either.  I had missed the town's Pet Parade yesterday because I had taken Hansel and Gretel to a vaccine clinic at Jem's Feed since both were due all their shots.  I would have enjoyed the pet parade, though.

My only hope was that we would get some rain.  We had our first rain yesterday for 20 minutes in the afternoon, and then it drizzled for most of the night. The backyard is a muddy field; all the grass that I had planted 15 years ago is gone.  The dogs have trampled it all.

Unlike Indiana, no one here fired off fireworks the night before.  

The morning was overcast and cool.  I walked the dogs: Zeke and Sweetie, Fritz and Wolfie, then Gretel and Sahne.  I wanted to take Minnie on a special solo visit in the afternoon, but I had to really coax her to walk to the car.  Is she in pain?

At 5pm I joined Susan and Allie with Minnie and Hansel at the river; the rain from yesterday flooded the river in the morning, but by the time I got to the river, most of the water had receded again.  But at least it's fresh water.  We went to "Minnie's pool" which is near the start of the hike, and let her swim in the muddy water.  We threw sticks at her which she still swam after (if Hansel didn't get to them first) and watched her enjoy the water.

We didn't walk much more than that.  Minnie didn't show an interest in walking past her pool, so we walked back to the cars.  This was a special visit for her anyway.  The old girl may not have many more walks left.

The evening progressed as all the evenings have: we sat outside on the porch watching the sun set. A few familes were letting off firecrackers in the subdivision to our west at 6pm, but two hours later people in the street to our north began setting off the louder fireworks which scared all the pups.  They all ran in the bedroom and jumped on the bed as if we were to comfort them.  These fireworks didn't even seem so bad to us, but the younger dogs had never experienced those noises before.

We ended up spending the night with seven dogs in bed.  Three of them got off to sleep on the floor, but I'm sure the entire pack was in the bedroom.  Some of my friends on Facebook were saying that this was the loudest July 4th celebration that they can remember.