MACINTOSH MONTHLY

So this is the first Macintosh Monthly post! Hooray! October was a bit of a blur if I'm honest. We spent the first half of the month separated from Mac because we were in England and then the second half of the month was all a but topsy turvy as Andrew had to go back to England again. Poor old Mac didn't know what was going on with all the suitcases being packed and unpacked all the time. 

Still we survived October and more importantly we survived those crazy flash floods that happened. For those of you who weren't aware our area had a crazy amount of rain in the middle of October, all on one night which caused some crazy flash flooding. There's an article on the BBC about it here which just shows you a little bit of the aftermath and a youtube video shows you what it looked like as it was happening. Thankfully where we were it wasn't that deep but there was mud flowing freely down the streets. 

The next day everything was brown and there were still huge mud flows and puddles everywhere. This was one of the streets right next to where we live. 

Obviously Macintosh thought this was brilliant and used it as an excuse to go wading through all the mud and puddles. 

As an owner, who would have to bath him when we got back, I decided he could only go so far so he ended up having these cute little bootie looking mud patches. He's hilarious. 

So that was our major excitement for the month of October. I have to say the mud lasted for ages and we had many muddy walks. Until eventually the Californian sun dried tall out and then it cracked into something strangely beautiful. 

Let's see how November treats Mr Macintosh!

H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Last week I decided to take Macintosh for a walk. We had some storms earlier in the week and there had been some flash flooding in the desert area. After a few days of heat I had assumed that most of the puddles would have dried up and that the desert would be back to normal. With that in mind I put on my flip flops and Mac and I set out. 

The first part of the desert was fine but after a while we began to encounter some leftover puddles. The sand around the puddles had turned into a muddy substance and was actually quite slippery. I had been told by Andrew to watch out for it, so I did. Macintosh avoided the puddles and so I thought I was completely safe, until right at the end of our walk....

We were one puddle away from the safety of dry sand. I was distracted for half a second and in that half a second my wonderful beagle decided it was now time to go into the middle of the puddle. He made a small dash for it which pulled hard at the lead and caused me to stumble forward. In doing so I ended up on the slippery sand/mud and did what can only be described as a cartoon style slip. My legs were running on the spot and I was failing about in an attempt to stay upright. However my attempt was futile. I landed straight on my bottom in the middle of the puddle. This caused Macintosh to jump and sent him running around me in circles at high speeds flicking mud everywhere. Trying to stand up covered me in more mud and ended with a scraped knee, but eventually I got out of the puddle.

I now had mud all over my bottom, up my legs, my flip flops were caked in mud and my dog was filthy too. On top of that I was still quite a way from home. I attempted to clean my flip flops in the muddy water. I only succeeded in removing the lumps and covering myself in more muddy water. I pulled the back of my top as low as it could go and decided to just walk home.

It was a humiliating walk. I didn't see too many people but whenever I did I ducked behind a car or bent down by Macintosh to fuss him in the attempt to disguise my rather messy self. After an agonising two blocks I made it onto our compound and rushed as fast as I could (on slippery muddy flip flops) into the house. Obligatory photographs were taken before Macintosh and I were both thrown into the shower and cleaned as quickly as possible. Once clean I sent the photos and details of the story to Andrew only to have the response, "LOL" followed by descriptions of how the lads at work found it funny. Now a few days later I see the humour in it but at the time I was mortified. 

And just to round off this humiliating post I'll show you the two photos I took. The first is of my legs and Macintosh which doesn't portray the mud as too severe but the look of my shorts will give you an idea I'm sure!

Fun and games!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Over the weekend Macintosh and I decided to finally brave the Lancaster dog park. To be completely fair it wasn't so much him being scared as it was me! Macintosh isn't great off lead and generally tends to ignore all commands given to him. He has very selective hearing (much like his dad!!) So the idea of going to a park, albeit an enclosed area, and just letting him off did give me cause for concern. But as the weekend dawned and proved to be a less hot one I thought I'd brave it, at least in less heat I have a greater chance of running to catch up with him!

Though really I shouldn't have panicked at all. The dog park was great. The area was enclosed as stated but you could easily see from one end to the other with no hidden corners. There were double gates so that even if he managed to escape one gate another blocked his exit. As an added bonus, due to the weather, it wasn't too busy so it was a great introduction. Macintosh could play with the other dogs without being overwhelmed and I could enjoy being there without worrying about him escaping. 

Well until I noticed the mud...

                                     

                                     

The park authorities had left the sprinklers on a bit too much and as a result had created a couple of mud baths in the park. As soon as these were discovered by Macintosh all the dogs were ignored and the focus was entirely on the mud. Being a British dog he is used to mud and especially muddy puddles. I have a feeling he had been suffering from withdrawal symptoms as I really struggled to keep him out of the puddles. Most of the other dogs obeyed their owners and stayed away but not Mac. In fact he stood right in the middle of the puddle as he knew I wasn't about to go wading in there after him. 

Once I'd given up and accepted that he would now be a delightful brown colour the biggest mission was to stop him from laying down. The other dog owners thought it was highly funny and enjoyed watching me trying to convince him not to lay down. However I do have a wonderfully stubborn dog, who over the past week has been returning to his former ways! Thankfully in the end his belly only skimmed the muddy water once as my stern teacher voice was enough to cause him to jump up!

                     

I didn't capture a photo of him looking bedraggled as it was at this point that I recalled that Mac's rug was in Andrew's car and that I had in fact driven my car to the park, which incidentally has wonderful light coloured carpet in the boot. Error. So after exhausting him in the dog park I then dragged him around the non-muddy remainder of the park forcing him to wipe off the mud on the grass. Yes at one point I may have told him to lay down and then physically moved him around myself to ensure the majority of it was off. I am aware that I will soon get a reputation at the dog park as the weird British lady. Such is the life of a beagle owner...

H