Monday, August 31, 2009

Max is inside now

I know we may have never met but if you have read any of my blog before you know that I am NOT fit as a fiddle. In fact, quite the opposite. Well, I drove the point home this weekend. Max, my 12 year old Golden Retriever has turned into an indoor dog. He lived outside all of his adult life until this summer. He's old, I'm older and getting soft (or so I am told) and honestly, I don't think his hearing and vision is all there and well it's just darn hot out so, he's now an indoor dog. He has behaved extremely well. Really hasn't gotten into anything and we close a hallway door to keep him from exploring the bedrooms. At the beginning I took him to a Puppy Palace. I know he's not a puppy but they bathed him and shaved him and bathed him again and gave him a flea bath and he came out looking completely different but smelling pretty. And so he has become an indoor dog.
To keep him smelling pretty he needs to be bathed and the task has fallen on me. I used to bather him outside using the garden hose and it was always an ordeal taking out a bucket to fill with his shampoo and water, rags to scrub him, the leash to hold him in one spot, towels to dry him off after, a stool for me to sit on because it's easier to get up from the stool than the floor.
That was when he was an outside dog. Now he's an inside dog, so a few weeks ago I decided to try the tub. That's where the inside people bathe why not Max. And so the adventure began and it went relatively well the first time a few weeks ago. I cleaned the tub afterwards and was sore that night and the next day. If I didn't have to life my arms I was fine but most things we do require some motion of the arm.
I did it again yesterday except this time hubby cleaned the tub after because I thought maybe I just did too much at once and that's why I was sore. Can I tell you that lifting the coffee mug to my mouth has been an effort this morning? I am just as sore today as I was a few weeks ago. I have no upper body strength. Bathing this dog whoops me every time. I need to do something about it. I am going to begin doing arm lifts or something every night to see if I can slowly get over this and be able to bathe my dog. Who knew that Max would be the one to drive me to exercise. Yeah, well, we'll see. Now, let's see if I can refill this mug.

2 comments:

Hilda said...

Ooooh! Ooooh! I have an idea!

Why not have your 17 year-old non-rent-paying-non-job-having son bathe the frickin' frackin' dog?

I'm just sayin'

:)

Just don't tell him it was my idea...

Cristina said...

Actually, this was discussed BUT he needed to finish his ACT review as we are gone next weekend and he's taking the test the following weekend. I would never interrupt studying and I wanted Max bathed before we left.