I was in a major cleaning mood this morning and I took advantage of it. I first managed to get the dog corralled in the bathroom, a major feat all on its own. George is a Chinese Crested, the kind with fur thank you, and is around ten to twelve pounds I'd guess. The first couple of times that I bathed him it was no problem getting him in the bathroom. Now, he's wise to my motives. I call him in and he starts cowering and shaking, the poor thing. So, I get him in, telling him it will only take five to ten minutes to get him all sudsy and clean again, but he gives me the pitiful puppy dog look. I lift him in and turn the water on. He behaves this time and doesn't manage to jump out like he did last time. Midway though, my lower back is aching from bending over the tub. My arms though are getting a good workout by the rub-a-dub-dubbing of the pup.
Now comes the fun part. Getting George out of the tub and trying to contain his spray of water. He has a lot of fur, a lot, and it holds a lot more water than you'd think. He recently got a trim in April I believe but he still has a lot a fur. I went through three bath towels getting him somewhat dry before letting him unleash his pent up energy through the rest of the house. I then use another two bath towels to mop up the water on the floor, toilet and walls...yes, walls. The little dog can shake I tell you. And come to think of it, I somehow managed not to get soaked.
Think that's the end of the dog washing? Nope. I don't want him to track water all over the tile in the hall and kitchen area, so I bring him into the bedroom. He loves the bedroom. Why? Because our three cats hide out there. So I let him in, and warn the cats with a "look out kitties, here he comes!" and he zooms right in. I get him over to my hair dryer and start on the long drying process. It takes me longer to dry his fur than it does to dry my hair. Trying to keep him still and in one place while drying him works the muscles too. So I hooked a finger in his collar (probably not too safe to do, for fear of attaining a broken finger) and went to business. Not sure how much time has past, but between kneeling on the tile bathroom floor and then kneeling on the bedroom floor, my legs were tired. I do a sort of "genie sit"
while drying him off so that works the fronts of my thighs.
So, with the dog mostly dry I send him out of the room, give him a treat for behaving fairly well and move on to the next task. Laundry. With most of my bath towels were used up having quite a few already in the hamper, I haul the load into the laundry room and dump them in. After I of course put the blanket that was in the washer into the dryer. Now I can relax right? Nope. Out to the kitchen I go to empty the dish washer and reload the sucker. I got balance practice in by putting away glasses and dishes on the upper shelves. Side bends were done loading dishes into the washer, and a major test in balance was achieved when putting pans on the tippy tippy top shelf of the pantry. Success.Thank goodness for the chair behind me in case I fell over.
I had a bit of a break by having lunch and watching some news. Then came time to do some squats with the dryer. Got the blanket out and it was still not quite dry so I hung it up on my elliptical (sad to see it used for a drying rack at the moment), and put the huge load of towels into the dryer. Next I hauled Ashley's (our second cat, about 10 years old) makeshift bed (my old comforter from college) and loaded it in.
Since her bed was now in the washer, I decided to give our bedroom a thorough vacuuming. I love my vacuum.
It gets dirt and fur and sand that others just don't get. I was going to sprinkle the floor with carpet freshener powder and vacuum the room a second time, but my husband got back from work. So that will have to wait until tomorrow or whenever. The carpet is starting to get that "cat" odor to it again. So after pushing and pulling the vacuum around, I was finally done. I went from about 9 AM to 1 PM non stop, other than lunch which was all of ten minutes.
And as I was writing this post, our youngest cat Abby, about 8 years old, decided to get sick on one the covers that covers the couch. So I hauled that sucker into the washer and it is now being cleaned. So with a slight headache, I am tired, but I feel very accomplished. I may not have gotten my traditional workout in, but it sure feels like it. And to all you moms out there that do this, or similar activities every day, my hat is off to you!
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