In case you didn't know, the Finnish Lapphund is an arctic breed of dog. The breed is, well, bred, to herd reindeer in Finland. Finland isn't known for it's balmy, tropical weather.This means that Lappies are a breed of dog prone to heatstroke. It's best to not have them out in the heat of the day during the summer and one of the reasons we used to lock Annie and Jinx in the bedroom when we went to work, June through August - it was the only room with air conditioning.Jinx, however, seems to have been absent the day the memo about Lappies not being good in the heat went out. Jinx likes to SUNBATHE.

You didn't specify that ALL of me had to be in the shade, Mummy.

See that photo there? Well, that was what happened after I told Jinx "You can stay outside with me while I read, but you have to stay in the shade."

Trust me. Jinx understands this. You'll often hear Shawn or I calling out to him "Get out of the sun, you moronic dog!" during the summer months. He'll ask to go out, and we let him, thinking he has to potty, but no... he walks to the edge of the deck, or out into the middle of the grass and just flops down. Happy as can be. He loves to bask in the sun.

So we'll cry out "Get in the shade!"

And he'll pick himself up, blink at us and then slowly wander back up the steps into the shade on the deck. He then plops down HEAVILY and glares at us.

So, Jinx knows the word shade. He does. But this time he looked at me, looked down, circled, shifted, looked at me, looked down and then plopped down so that just his butt and tail were in the shade.

Tricky bastard.

As I snapped the photo I said, "I see what you did there. Don't think I don't see that." And gave him a Don't Mess with Mum look and said "Shade. All of you. Now. Or you go inside." So he got up and moved.

Happy now? Now that you've killed my dreams?

And he thunked down so heavily and sulked. I told him to suck it up, I was just trying to keep him alive and I went back to reading.

Oh, the humidity.. er.. humanity! Or animality? Whatever... MY LIFE IS TRAGIC!

This shot was taken moments after a BIG DRAMATIC SIGH where Jinx pulled his paw under his chin and just SIGHED! Seriously. You'd think he was about to call Animal Abuse and report me. Imagine. Making him lie in the shade, when it was very, very hot out and having a bowl of water RIGHT NEXT TO HIM. I'm a monster.

He tried to sneak around the chair I was in once and pretended to be sniffing something near the barbecue and suddenly flop down in the sun again. I watched him as he did this and noticed he kept sneaking glances back at me to see if I was watching. What a sneak! I caught him before he fully hit the ground the first time and startled him with a bark of "Shade!". He slunk, dejectedly, back into the shade near my chair. The second time he wandered down the steps to the grass and made like he was going to do some potty type business, looked back over his shoulder at me and flopped right down in the sun.

Good grief.

After I scolded him once more, he went and lay down by the backdoor, I guess thinking if he can't lay in the sun, he'd rather be inside with Shawn and Sophie (Sophie who much prefers the air conditioned house and NO SUN).

I might be overly paranoid about Jinx and heat stroke, but I know of Lappies who have succumb to it and it was sudden and sometimes during weather that you'd think would be ok. I just don't need Jinx frying his brain in the sun in 40C weather.. or 30C weather, for that matter!

Alas, my furry little cheeky monkey doesn't seem to register the danger. He just liked to sunbathe. He's been like this since a pup. Strange dog.