Walking in the rain with Lucy

Last weekend, it was pouring rain, or as my mother likes to say, "it was raining cats and dogs." I was in Stuart's neighborhood and had to take Lucy out for her morning walk. I had my "rain gear" on - tevas to trudge through the water, my baseball hat and my large umbrella. I didn't have my rain jacket nor my water resistant hiking pants with me, but I had to make due.

At first, I was bummed out at the prospect of having to walk her in the terrible rain storm. It was also a little on the cold side, about 58 degrees.

Once we were outside, Lucy seemed to share my dislike of the rain. She kept stopping to shake out her coat. But slowly, I realized that she was enjoying it. She kept looking up at my umbrella and trying to catch the especially large rain drops that were falling towards her. It was an endless game of catch. She seemed to be even smiling. I couldn't help but laugh.

At her "poop spot", as we call it, she decided that the small creek of water that had developed was much more interesting than doing her business. She playfully lept into the 4 inches or so of water in her "play bow" several times. Of course, she decided to leap into the water so suddenly that I had to join her. Cold water rushed over my exposed feet. I stood for a moment, looked down and saw my hot pink toe nails and black tevas under the cold running stream. 'Thank God for tevas!' I said to myself, as any other pair of shoes would have been ruined by the water. I felt defeated in my battle to stay dry and decided to go down with dignity. After a few minutes of standing there and letting Lucy jump in and out of the small creek, it was time to move on.

As we walked back to the house, I had a smile on my face even though it was still gray, cold and rainy and I would have preferred to sleep in. Lucy did her magic on me again.