Like Mother, like Daughter

Our gorgeous English Shepherd, Gemma, glowing in the autumn gold, Oct 2024

A few days ago, our gorgeous English Shepherd, Gemma, was out in the yard with me while I worked on digging up part of our sidewalk. Unbeknownst to me, someone had dumped some thick, rotten, greasy substance on our acreage during the winter, which was subsequently exposed in the sudden snow melt of spring temperatures. She had only been exploring for a couple of minutes, as she prefers to stay close when I'm outside, yet she managed to cover herself from head to tail to toes in the foul, stinking, nose-assaulting slime.

I smelled her before I saw her... and looked up to see a very bedraggled cur; a far cry from the dainty, soft coated princess that typically graces our acreage. (We have a literal Beauty and the Beast story here as Gemma prefers to pick her way discreetly around mud while Copper barrels through it as only a young male working dog is wont to do, lol But, apparently the draw of that rancid delicacy was more temptation than she could stand!)

Picture this but in fetid grease:

Dog rolling in mud File from: https://tenor.com/view/roll-around-getting-dirty-playing-in-the-mud-having-fun-enjoying-gif-16768756

So then the dilemma. Yes, it was melting, but temps were supposed to be -10 that night, and it was too close to 0 to even consider washing her outside... but I didn't want THAT in my house or car!! Nor did we want her just wandering around the yard brushing her goop against anything... Yet we couldn't leave her long as I was concerned not only about our noses but the potential for flystrike as the temps warmed. We ended up just gingerly escorting her to a pen where she could stay until the forecast warm days arrived.

Cue this past Sunday. +19 degrees! Bath day it was!! But the malodorous grease had had a chance to soak in, matting and clumping her all the way through her double coat to her skin.

Gemma's Bath day

We used multiple tubs of warm water and probably a cup of Dawn along with tearless baby shampoo and Burt's Bees puppy shampoo... I had to scrub and scrub, and pull bits of congealed fat out of her "dreadlocks". It was quite the process! But... overall, she stood like a champ. A mild pulling back when I doused her head with water, and a couple of halfhearted attempts to stick a paw out of the tub, but for the most part, she just gently cooperated. Pretty amazing for a dog who is not used to spa days!

And that reminded me of her daughter, Harmony, when I prepared her to travel down to the Edmonton area in late Jan of 2024. She was gentle and sweet even though it was a new experience... just like her mama 💕 Looking forward to repeating that pairing spring of 2026, Lord willing!

Harmony's First Bath, Jan 2024

Funny thing, I no sooner completed grooming our fluffy, once again sweet-smelling Gemma this morning than I looked up to see Copper roaring around his field where over 2 feet of snow had melted in the past 2 days... And the hubs had put pigs in there last fall when we were short of pasture... so craters everywhere now filled with water. Copper's the mud bog King! Too bad I didn't catch it on camera. But... I'm so thankful it's just mud!