Dog Days of Summer

As much as the kids enjoy irrigating, I think that our dogs are the ones that have the most fun.  If we tell them we're going to irrigate, they dart out to the truck and wait for us to get going.  Boone loves water more than a Labrador does, and when given the choice to walk on dry land, or straight up the middle of the irrigation ditch, he'll choose the ditch every time.

Chigger, on the other hand, prefers to stay dry.  So unless the temperature is above 100 degrees, he bounces over the irrigation ditches.

When the grass gets this tall, he has a hard time seeing where he's going, so he has to bounce through the pasture like Tigger.  This was the only shot I could get of him.  Usually all I see is the tip of his tail.  He depends on Boone, his trusty sidekick, to lead the way like a bulldozer clearing a path.  Poor little guy!

After Boone is good and wet, he finds something dead and stinky to roll in, and then he feels like a new dog!

Boone is pushing 14 years old, and is living the retired cowdog life.  His back legs just aren't what they used to be from years of leaping in and out of the back of the truck, and up and down hay bales.  Today, for the very first time, we had to help him get out of the irrigation ditch after a number of failed attempts.  It breaks my heart to see him getting older!

But as long as he's willing to go, we'll keep taking him along with us. We have to lift him in and out of the back of the truck, and I think it humiliates the poor guy.  He may be old, but he's still got his pride!  He'll be so crippled up tomorrow that he'll probably lay around the house all day, but a day of fun in the water is worth it! Just look at this Happy Dog!  Tonight his paws will move a mile a minute as he dreams about herding cattle and taking a swim in the irrigation ditch.

Another beautiful summer day on the mountain has come to an end.