It’s been quite hard keeping the “chocolate logs” (aka Chocolate Labradors: Slab and Sassy) busy during lockdown. They quite enjoy having their two-legged human family around all the time to lick to death at the slightest opportunity (they have zero clue about social distancing), but can’t quite understand why there are no walkies in the park or greenbelt. We daren’t even mention the mere word!
While on my scullery cleaning quest, I was sorting through the pet shelf, which involved cleaning out seventy ‘eleventy’ teeny tiny puppy leads and collars, when they heard the rattle of chains and came running so fast they broke the world land speed record! Ever tried to tell two labradors with melty brown eyes that while you did indeed accidentally rattle some leads, there is unfortunately no walking allowed! The struggle was real I tell you!
I have tried to get them to join me on my morning garden power-walk, but they prefer to sit on the patio and smile and gossip to each about the crazy woman doing millions of garden laps at high speed!
So because they sleep so much during the day, they have lost some sense of time and think it’s quite okay to wake their human slaves to play at around 3am. Now I am not sure about you guys, but personally I am actually quite fond of being in cloud cuckooland at 3am and as much as I love these chocolate love bugs, I am not sure I always love them at that time! I can understand if their bladders are requiring some decanting of liquid, but not so much the wanting to play.
In an effort to get them to “sleep through” the family have taken to busying them in the garden before bedtime. Last night SP (Son Person) was on Chocolate Log duty and before long, Sassy was in the pool! You would think that now that the evenings are a bit chillier she would refrain from her usual aquatic sports! (Thankfully Slab only swims in water where she can’t see the bottom, so as long as our pool retains its spiffy sparkling blue colour during lockdown we are pretty safe with her!)
This left SP with one very wet dog just before bedtime and rubbing her with a towel wasn’t quite doing the trick. So my IT whizzkid did what any genius would do – he took out a hairdryer and blow-dried the dog! Just an average day in Africa I guess! On the plus side the chocolate munchkins both slept right through the night, and I actually had to wake them this morning when I got up to make tea, so now they are both back in my will again!
Hmm – maybe we should add blow-drying to their daily routine – we could be onto something?!
Missed some of the other Corona Chronicles? Check them out here:
Corona Chronicles: Witty Joburg resident documents past five days of social distancing
Corona Chronicles: Lockdown makes Joburger confront gridlocked passage and a lipstick dilemma
Corona Chonicles: Are mops considered an ‘essential’ item?
Corona Chronicles: Chicken or beef?
Corona Chronicles: Worry over wine stock after husband accidentally breaks three bottles
Corona Chronicles: All dressed up and off to the shops she goes
Corona Chronicles: Does reading a book and drinking a gin while lying in the sun count as housework?
Corona Chronicles: Lockdown’s become a puzzle
Corona Chronicles: New dress sense during lockdown
Corona Chronicles: How to manage household chores during lockdown
Corona Chronicles: Attempt to re-create Mozambican holiday doesn’t go to plan
Corona Chronicles: Lockdown eating habits
Corona Chronicles: Thank goodness of homemade pizzas and braais that work
Corona Chronicles: A plan to overcome ‘cleaning envy’
Corona Chronicles: A recipe for every occasion
Corona Chronicles: Time to nail it
Corona Chronicles: Ready to throw an ‘end-of-Skype-meetings’ party at the end of lockdown
Corona Chronicles: Raise the bar
Corona Chronicles: Banana bread: The apparent law of lockdown and other baking stories
