Thursday, March 29, 2012

Bathing Rose

I love giving Rose baths!! It is relaxing and soothing to me somehow!! Seriously!! I cannot explain it.... Giving Rose baths is work. Back-bending work. Plus, she does not care for baths all that much!! Typical dog.... Once Rose knows for certain that I will be scrubbing her clean, she runs from me!! Yep. Runs!! In the direction of "our" bed!! This always makes me smile!! She is my little fugitive.... However, as soon as I have Rose in the "boy's bathroom" tub, with lukewarm water running, and her dog shampoo ready, doing this task seems serene!! Honestly!! Rose is really quite cooperative--for the most part--once I place her into our bathtub!! That's right. Cooperative!! She just stands there, nearly stock-still, allowing my sudsy fingers to gently massage her body!! Imagine that.... No trembling, zero "protests", no cowering. My youngest brother--Uncle Michael to Rose--helps me. I literally cannot do it without him!! Like Tim Taylor and Al Borland from TV's "Home Improvement", Uncle Michael assists me!! In other words, he does all of the work!! Uncle Michael fetches three large towels. He finds Rose's dog shampoo. Uncle Michael places our plastic hair drain catcher in the bathtub. He certainly is a diligent "doer".... With an incredible memory, unlike me!! Uncle Michael even turns on the bathtub faucet!! But I pick up a reluctant Rose. I place her into our bathtub. I scrub Rose clean. I hose her off!! See? The two of us are perfect partners!! Because Rose highly disproves of her bath time, Uncle Michael and I sing. Any sort of song. Christmas carols. Praise and worship songs. Oldies. Country music songs. She loves it when we sing to her!! Doing so calms Rose's nerves, thus also relaxes me in the process!! Score!! The other day, I was scrubbing some Country Apple-scented dog shampoo into Rose's velvet-soft fur. Uncle Michael and I were each taking turns choosing songs. Rose was apparently one dirty dog, as grime and crud fell freely off of her body!! Disgusting!! Unless she rolls in raccoon scat, which was not the case, visible dirt never washes off of her!! Occasionally, I will drown a flea or two. But other than that.... So here I was, sitting on the edge of our bathtub, singing quietly, along with Uncle Michael, scrubbing Rose, nothing but my bare feet touching its waters. Everything seemed perfect....When, suddenly, sans any warning, the water temperature drastically changed!! From lukewarm, to.... Hot!! "Whoa, whoa, whoa!!" I screamed. "It's hot!! It's hot!!" Then I commanded Uncle Michael: "Turn it off!! Turn the water off!! It's hot!! It's hot!! It's hot!! Turn it off!! Turn it off!! Turn it off!!" I could feel the steaming water's burn on my feet.... Could Rose, too? Uncle Michael turned off our faucet, as he was told. With slimy, sudsy shampoo still clung to Rose's right thigh, I asked Uncle Michael to find out what just happened. Had somebody started the washing machine? This causes a drastic change in our water's temperature, one way or another. No. Somebody flushed the half bath toilet!! Oops. Our water in the "boy's bathroom" and half bath are, for some reason, connected!! Very, very, very connected. It is easy to forget when someone is in the bathtub!! I then regained my composure after looking at Rose's confused face. What's going on? She seemed to ask. Why are you yelling, Mama? Did I do something wrong? Why is the water turned off? Are we done? Finally, I apologized to Rose, several times. Uncle Michael turned the water back on. We resumed our singing. Within seconds, Rose was hosed off, clean, and her paw pads were unaffected!!

8 comments:

Rama's Mama said...

Oh my goodness! So glad Rose is ok!

Ruby said...

That sounds so fun! I don't know why she runs away from it.

Stacey said...

oh gosh, that must have been scary with the hot water... lucky you noticed so quickly :-) Rose sounds like an amazing dog. My girls hate baths too haha

Mary Lou said...

Rama's Mama....
Thank-you for the comment!!
Yeah.... Rose was fine.... Other than being baffled by my yelling!! Dogs paw pads are tough, thank goodness!! ;op
By the way.... I am having difficulty accessing your blog!! I miss you guys!! :-(

Mary Lou said...

Ruby....
Thank-you for the comment!!
No dog enjoys bath time.... Even if we make it fun!! ;op

Mary Lou said...

Stacey....
Thank-you for the comment!!
Yeah.... I think that even though Rose felt our faucet's hot water, my yelling was what frightened her the most!! Poor girl.... She does not like yelling!! ;op

Charlene and Storm said...

ha i thought it was just me that sings to stormy when im giving him a bath, he seems to enjoy it too :)
and when i scratch his neck to get all the dead hair and dirt off he actually loves that and leans into my hands. he starts to fall asleep about half way thru and i have to hold him up with one hand and wash him with the other while his eyes are shut, its really funny. im glad he only weighs 2 stone or my arms would fall off :)
xxx

Mary Lou said...

charlene and Storm....
Thank-you for the comment!!
That sounds so cute!! And sweet, too!! ;op