Rainy Days Make for Great Hiding Spots

The past 2 days have been gray and rainy. Not much fun when mamma, baby and dog LOVE being outdoors. Luckily we had a bit of a reprieve today, but yesterday-- yikes! Talk about cabin fever! At one point we all were looking at one another with shifty eyes, just daring the other to do something annoying. All we needed was a tiny prod and *BAM* we'd be all over the instigator giving her what-for.

Eight hours into our day, and Ollie had enough of the house, us... life! It was his birthday after all and had expected to be treated like royalty. Oh wait. He expects that treatment every day so it wasn't anything new. Claire had woken up a bit cranky from her nap so I was doing my best to keep her happy and myself calm so as not to go mental. Ollie realized that his needs were not going to be met and kind of disappeared. I think at one point I heard him go in and out of his doggie door approximately 12 times in 10 minutes.

Fast forward to early evening. Dadda's home! WEEEEEE!!! Claire's happy. Ollie runs in from outside, ecstatic. Dadda notes how muddy Ollie's nose was, which we know means he was out burying or re-burying something. After the greetings, dadda begins his evening ritual that includes putting on his house slippers. But wait-a-minute. One slipper is missing. Uh-oh. Only one of the 2 non-adult mammals could have done something with it and since I was constantly with Claire post-nap, the remaining 4-legged mammal was our prime suspect.

I suggested dadda get his rain gear on and check out back to see whether Ollie had buried his slipper. After searching in the rain, dadda re-enters the house and gives the house another look through. That was frustrating. Next it's mamma's turn. After I gear up, we all somehow end up in the yard looking around. That search also ended up in a big F.A.I.L. Ok, break time. Let's get some dinner.

Being that I couldn't give up quite yet, I went back outside while dadda and Claire ate their meal. Slowly I make my way around the yard. I'm about 3/4 of the way done when I happened to catch something out of the corner of my eye. I do a double take on the stump of the honey suckle tree (Side note: our beautiful tree had to be chopped because the 5 feet of snow we were hit with in 1 week completely destroyed the tree. *sniff* It will be missed). Where was I? Oh yeah, so I do a double take on the stump and I notice that the dirt had 2 different shades of brown, and the lighter brown had a very distinct shape. Well, well, well. I guess Ollie wasn't burying a bone after all and boy! Did he do an awesome job burying the slipper. Never have I seen Ollie bury anything -- be it bone, rawhide, sock, or ball -- so well! Impressive. He must have really wanted dadda's attention.

So now the slipper has been recovered, but totally unwearable. We managed to shake most of the dirt off/out of it and then left it to dry so that it could be dusted again. And wouldn't you know it, this morning while I was eating breakfast I hear Ollie running in and out of his doggie door. It sounded like he was struggling to get through the door and at the same time was crying. Suddenly I remembered that one of Claire's stuffies was lying on the floor downstairs and a million-to-one Ollie thought he could take it and bury it. I ran downstairs to find Ollie walking around nervously with the stuffie in his mouth. Good grief! Thank goodness I was able to rescue the stuffie in time. I didn't want to see it reach the same fate as dadda's slipper.