You know it is time to give your dogs a bath when you wonder "Why does it smell like pee in the house? Did someone pee on the carpet?" and then you realize it's the DOG that smells like a hobo. Considering last week Jinx was all about the throwing up for two days straight, after Annie was all about it from a tomato binge... (and that Jinx threw up ON Annie one morning... so much fun!) - it was time. The weather will be turning soon and since we have a lovely warm (but not TOO warm) weekend ahead of us, I thought - let's wash the dogs before I send them to live with the hobos on the streets of Montreal!I also want to vacuum my house because it currently looks like we have 73 dogs living here and not just two. So I put the leash on Annie and walked her into the kitchen where I proceeded to torture her for a good 45 minutes, the aftermath of which was this:It does rather look like we tortured her, doesn't it? Poor thing. I didn't even know she had that much fur left on her to come off! She was matted like hell. Shawn had to help hold her head because she is old and crotchety and kept trying to snap at me. But in the end she looked MUCH better (and younger!):We told her she was now as awesome as The Magical Mr. Mistoffelees from CATS. You'd never know she was 12.5 years old!Jinx took it upon himself to hide upstairs in the bedroom while we groomed Annie, but Shawn got him down and then we tackled him. His brushing was NOTHING like it was two months ago, but I still trimmed his tail and pantaloons and feet. He doesn't like that.After we got all the dead fur off the pups we stole one at a time, put them on the patio table and washed them! They were thrilled as you can imagine!Annie shook right before I took this which is sad because she really looked much goofier right before. Heh. Can't you see the unconditional love in her eyes?Completely forgot to take a photo of Jinx while he was on the table looking miserable. It's rare he doesn't look happy and being hosed and/or brushed is one of those times. He tried to show us his paws to distract us, but we weren't fooled!

It was nice enough today that I could leave them outside to dry. Not too hot for Annie so no fear for heat stroke (which Lappies are very prone to being an Arctic breed and all) and it was nice and shady on the deck. A little fresh air is good for them! I could have hung them on the line like we did with the clothes we wore while washing them. They should be thankful!I might have to do one more washing before the winter really sets in, but that will be in the bathtub. I sort of like being able to bathe them outside in the summer.They each need one more brushing (tomorrow!) before I can clean the rest of my house. We got most of the dead fur off of them before the bath, but there's more to take off now that they have dried. Poor Annie is a matted mess again only I'm scared that if I take off any more fur she'll be bald come winter!