not complaining about all the recent rain

No, I will never again complain about too much rain, after all the years of drought we've had.

But...

it sure has rained a lot recently. It's got to the stage where it's hard for a somewhat older dog walker to keep her footing. Most of the best places around here are along the Yarra River, or along local creeks, because that's where the public open land is, and they are swampy and muddy places.

But great for a dog who has part-poodle heritage. (I was quite surprised to realise the word "poodle' is a derived from the word 'puddle' and that poodles are water dogs.)



Of course, having wandered through every puddle as I minced around the edges, Penny had a delightful layer of mud up to her belly.( I thought it would involve a third dunk in the bath for her - two recently - but luckily it brushed out easily later at home.)



It rained most of the time we were out, and the clouds threatened even heavier rain.



So, of course, we and one other lone woman with dog were the only silly billies tramping through the slush. But wait! As we walked along the edge of the golf course, what did we see? The other type of all-weather people - golfers.



We headed back to the car past the tennis courts, and took note of the sign on the gate that should stop any complacency about the current rain. After so long without rain it will take more than one wet season to restore nature's balance.

why my dog loves puddles

Penny loves every kind of water - except for her bath. If we walk in Darebin Parklands in wet weather there's a particular place where a muddy puddle forms and Penny will always plonk herself into it, often rolling over (to make quite sure she collects enough dirt to cover the entire kitchen floor).

When we walk along the creek in summer we have to watch out that she doesn't suddenly disappear down the bank into the creek.

And I still don't like to recall the time that she launched herself suddenly into the Yarra River at Studley Park to chase a ball and then couldn't climb up the bank. Suffice it to say I got rather muddy before she was on land again.

Last night I was following a link from one of my favorite blogs, The Pet Museum, and arrived at The Poodle History Project. For a lover of literature and of history, this site is an endless source of entertainment. Incidentally, those who grew up as I did devouring the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer, will be interested in the part about the Prince Regent's friend 'Poodle Byng'.

Okay, so what does this have to do with Penny rolling in puddles? Well, as I have mentioned before, her ancestry is somewhat mysterious. She was sold to us as a maltese X shih tzu with one poodle grandparent. We've always taken the poodle heritage with a grain of salt, except for occasional remarks by passers-by about her coat or the shape of her muzzle. What we hadn't taken into consideration was her passion for water.

I hadn't made the connection between the word 'poodle' and the word 'puddle' until last night. I looked it up on a few etymological sites and there it was... They come from the same linguistic source - poodles are puddle dogs.

So, maybe Penny does have poodle ancestry. Of course, that leads to a new nickname for her - 'Penny the Puddler'. (One of the other ones is The Flying Carpet).