If you live somewhere like I do (northeast Ohio), you might be currently finding yourself in the middle of mud season! The days are colder, but not cold enough for the ground to freeze. The sun has been quite absent while the rain has been constant. It has snowed a few times, but that has just melted within a day or two, supersaturating the ground with more water. Temperatures have been nowhere near warm which means nothing is drying out. This all has been a perfect recipe for mud mud and more mud!
If you live somewhere like I do, and you are a bit of a neat freak AND especially if you have dogs, this mud may be driving you crazy! The yard is a mess of 80% sticky mud, 10% standing water, and 10% wet grass. The front walk is soaked. Even the driveway has puddles in it. Wet footprints are the norm and, even worse, wet and muddy dog paws are a constant daily battle! Cleaning your shoes, cleaning the floors, cleaning those paws, and then cleaning the rags used to wipe down those paws is driving you crazy!
Do you know who doesn’t mind a bit about all that mud though? You guessed it, the dogs! They go traipsing through the worst of the worst of it without a care in the world. They have no problems running full speed ahead through the slickest of spots. Oh and mud puddles, that’s just kind of like a small swimming pool, right? Don’t get them started on the paw cleaning process…such a complete and total waste of time and energy. As far as they are concerned, who cares if the house is dirty?! Quite frankly, who cares if they are dirty?! I’ll tell you who cares though, I do!
But wait, maybe the dogs are on to something…
At the end of the day, does it really matter if I have some muddy paw prints on the floor? If the world ended tomorrow, will I have lived a better life because my dogs didn’t get wet and muddy playing outside? Are my friends and family members going to dislike me because the house is less than perfect looking? In short, no, no, and no!
Hmmm. Maybe they really ARE on to something…
There’s such a lesson here to be learned from our dogs. Yes it’s muddy out, yet they are still getting their exercise. Yes it’s muddy out, yet they are still enjoying the outdoors. Yes it’s muddy out, yet they are still having a great time with their friends. Yes it’s muddy out, yet they are living just as good of a life as they do when it is dry and sunny out!
Perhaps join me in trying to be more like our dogs when it comes to tolerance of the weather, especially the mud! They don’t stress over cleanliness and they don’t worry about their looks. All they know is they woke up this morning, life is good, and they are going to live it to the fullest. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all be “happy as a Lab”… especially a Lab in a mud puddle?
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