Birdie, the skinny little 13 year old beagle who has visited us before, came back for a weeklong visit at Camp Dow-tay! while her parents are out of town. Since she was last with us, she has:

• Put on enough weight that I thought she was Zeus
• Discovered the delightful sound of her own bark -- at all hours of the day and night
• Become quite feisty and willing to bite. If she had teeth, this would be a real problem.

She was cold, so I grabbed the silly sweater Andrea had bought on sale to put on her. All went well until I went to put her arm in, when she started screaming, then went for me with her mouth full o' gums. I made another two attempts to remove the sweater from her neck, figuring if she's going to be like that, she can just be cold, but those were also met with screams and bites so Birdie is now sporting a doggie ascot around her neck.

I gave Rainie and Zeus a bath yesterday. Rainie's entire winter coat came off afterwards, she's now as streamlined as her sister Pumpkin. Zeus got brushed too, coming around for seconds because he's such an attention hound but since he has so little hair, I just pretended.

My parents are coming in a week so I've started the Spring Cleaning that their arrival requires. Who would have thought that the back of the front door could be so gross? As the height of our dogs has increased, so has the height of the grime. I guess they spend their days leaning against the door?