Plants of Doom

Okay, not really doom. More like major inconvenience, all right? The kiddo and I took the dogs for a walk by the lake yesterday evening. Well, I wrangled the dogs while the kiddo walked along and played his Nintendo DS, insisting to me, "Mom, I AM watching where I'm going. I have peripheral vision, you know!" Got it.

So I made the mistake of letting all three dogs (remember the giant Golden Retriever?) wander through the tall daisies that appear every year at about this time. Later, I noticed the primary dog rubbing his face. Hmm. What now? Oh, just about a hundred evil seed/corkscrew things stuck all over him, that's what. They were stuck all over his legs, his fluffy snout and his beard. Poor guy was loaded with 'em.

Needless to say, I spent about 45 minutes at home, pulling these things out of his fur. The thing is, you have to find the seed part and pull from that end, since the corkscrew part doesn't want to release backward, if that makes sense. The dog was pretty cranky and upset at first (much growling and struggling) until he realized I was trying to help him. Then he just rolled over on his back and let me unstick him. His fur is very fine and fluffy, so it was a tedious job. And there are still a few left that I'll have to cut out later. The things I do for love.

In other news, I'm sneezing like crazy. I'm hoping it's just the daisies and not a Golden Retriever allergy, 'cause that would be a sad thing indeed. Benadryl is kicking my ass, so I'm going to look for an effective, non-drowsy allergy medicine.

A life without doggies would be no life at all. :-)