Dirt Diggin'

$^&##@^&!! I do like gardening, I really do. But not when it's so hot I drip sweat. That happened in late August, and I couldn't help myself. I longed for some help, and I wanted my dog. Don and I have two dogs, Buzz and Jackie, both Jack Russell Terriers, or now they would be called Parson Russell Terriers, if you know the difference. I'm not sure I do, but I think it has something to do with the length of legs and body. I really could be wrong, and I don't want to look it up. Help yourself...It's been a long day.

Buzz is the older by two years. He just had a birthday a few weeks ago, and is now 11 years old. Many still mistake him for a pup. And if you could see him pouncing in tall grass after some small woodland critter, you would think so, too.

When he was two or younger, before Jackie was with us, he would help in the yard. We had not been in this house long, and were doing a lot of moving things around, pulling weeds and planting. The pulling weeds is where Buzz was great. He LOVES,LOVES,LOVES to dig and pull whatever, with his teeth. He loves it. This may be the first year that seeing him dig, with Jackie behind as cheerleader, has not been a weekly event. Age catches up with us all, including my diggin' pooch.

But back in his day, I could have him outside with me, watching and shaking with delight by my side as I loosened up a big ol' weed. Buzz would be all attention. Nothing distracted him. His adopted sister Jackie, is not so devoted to digging, so I no longer have him out with me. Jackie would make such a fuss, being left inside, that it would be impossible.

Back to the past. Buzz would start to whine, tail wagging and ears up as high as he could make them go. When I said, " OK Buzz" that was what he had been waiting for. He would grab the weed by it's throat, er, stem, and pull and pull until he wrenched the bugger out of the soil, or broke it. He didn't break them too often. It was fun for both of us, and I didn't have to work as hard. And, by the end of the day, I had a happy, relaxed and tired Jack Russell. A tired Jack is a happy Jack, we say. We could have read it somewhere, and I think that because anyone that has a Jack has to feel the same way.

I really wish I could make my dog happy once more, especially a decade later in life. For both of us. ^&*$#@+$@&^...