Sparky didn’t want to talk this morning, and thought we should spend the time in quiet contemplation.  I think he just took a nap.

I was contemplating what people with big dogs do.  Dogs don’t seem to understand their size relative to someone else.  You often see a little yippy dog intimidate a dog that could bite him in half or step over him.  A big dog still wants to get on your lap.

You can see why Sparky having a poop-scented head was an issue.  I gave him a California shower1 yesterday, and that seems to have fixed him up.  I also checked his ears.  Nothing looked or smelled offensive in there. 

When we went out for his morning toilet, I regretted having Sparky on a leash rather than his free-tether.  Sparky flushed a rabbit, but was unable to pursue.  It’s a shame because the rabbit didn’t have a very good exit strategy. 

After we come in, Sparky is supposed to amuse himself until breakfast, so I can have a coffee and see if anyone said anything wrong on the internet.  Today, Sparky was clingy.  He wanted to be on my lap.  Not affectionate, but insistent. 

At first, I thought he wanted to apologize for sleeping during our morning meeting, or chastise me for screwing the pooch with the rabbit encounter.  He didn’t even try to hypnotize me.

Fortunately, Sparky and I have a deep bond, so I thought maybe he needed to take a shit.  We went back outside, and voilà.  

I get it.  Sometimes you wake up groggy, and all systems aren’t online yet.

1 A ‘California shower’ is when you use a wet washcloth or moist toilette to swab out your arm pits and possibly your crotchaler area. For Sparky, it means a damp rag, wet with shampoo water, is used to wipe down his head, neck and face.  Another damp rag is used to do a rinse wipe.

I learned the term while working a long Sunday shift at the Rhinelander Restaurant.  A cook was kind enough to observe that I was getting gamey, and explained the concept.  I did appreciate it, and think it’s always good to point out this sort of thing if a solution is also available.

Apparently ‘California shower’  is not a commonly understood term.  I tried looking it up.

Google sent me to the Urban Dictionary for a definition that tried to be vulgar, but was mostly incoherent.  Bing tried to find me a contractor to renovate my shower.  Grokopedia gave me a list of terms it did know, but were completely unrelated.  “What is a SGR A?”  “What a Bitch is Love.” “What exactly is a Skyrmion?” I am little curious, but not really.