I suspect that our German shepherd thinks I can make it rain.
Shilo doesn’t like rain, which is odd because she loves to play in water. If I’m outside and I turn the hose on, for some reason Shilo goes nuts. She will run around and try to bite the water as it comes out of the hose. If I shoot the water into the air, she will run around the yard trying to catch it as it falls to the ground.
Shilo also chases falling snow, which answers the question: Are German shepherds really smart?
Shilo’s love of water, however, doesn’t apply to rain. When it rains, Shilo turns into the Wicked Witch of the West. On Friday I came downstairs and Shilo was standing by the door as she always is waiting to go with me to get the paper. Normally, I open the door and Shilo will race out looking for squirrels and rabbits while I walk over to our neighbor’s yard, pick up her paper and toss it on her porch. Then I walk back and pick up our paper. When I start to walk inside, Shilo will give up her squirrel and rabbit search and follow me indoors.
But on Friday, when I opened the door, Shilo started to step out but when she noticed that it was raining she stopped in her tracks and looked at me as if to say: “You’re on your own.” She then walked back inside.
Later, after Emma left for school and my wife left for work, I made a cup of coffee and asked Shilo if she wanted to go for a walk. Shilo started barking and then started turning circles, which is her way of saying, “Yes, please!”
I’m not sure, but I think if Shilo were to bark and run around in a trapezoid pattern that would be her way of saying, “No, thank you.”
I opened the door to our breezeway, grabbed Shilo’s leash, snapped it on her collar, opened the breezeway door and the two of us stepped outside. Then Shilo remembered that it was raining.
She immediately stopped and gave me her “You’re on your own” look and she started to go back inside. But I wouldn’t let her. See, I don’t take Shilo on morning walks for my health. I take Shilo on morning walks so she will do what scientists all across the country refer to as No. 1 and No. 2.
While Shilo is pretty good at restricting her No. 1 and her No. 2 to locations outside of our house, she does have her limits.
“No,” I said. “You have to go to the bathroom.”
I’m not sure which is worse, the fact that I actually think Shilo understands what I’m saying when I tell her she has to go to the bathroom or the fact that I don’t feel self-conscious saying that.
It’s a toss up is what it is.
Before we went on our walk, I reached into my car and grabbed an umbrella and opened it. Shilo walked closer to me so she could stand under the umbrella.
“No, there is not enough room for both of us,” I said.
Shilo sat down next to me under the umbrella and looked up at me as if to say, “Wanna bet?”
After a while I was able to coax Shilo to move out from under the umbrella. I was able to do that by putting the umbrella back into my car. Realizing that she had no choice, Shilo began walking in the rain. After a few minutes, Shilo stopped and looked back at me. Really, is there anything sadder looking than a dog standing in the rain?
Well, maybe a guy who thinks his dog knows what the word “bathroom” means and actually opted to put away an umbrella and walk in the rain is sadder, but fortunately nobody saw that guy.
Local News
Mike Pound: Dog knows enough to get out of the rain, not owner
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Families, friends invited to honor veterans with flags this weekend
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Events, activities planned to honor veterans Monday
No ceremonies are planned at Joplin cemeteries this year or at Mount Hope Cemetery in Webb City, but a number of other events are scheduled in cities around the region.
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Oklahoma gets far more than its share of disasters
Many states get hit frequently with tornadoes and other natural catastrophes, but Oklahoma is Disaster Central.
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Sheriff’s funds to pay for two building projects
Jasper County’s general fund budget may pay some initial costs for renovating and constructing two county buildings, but the final bill for the projects will come from law enforcement sales tax funds.
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Joplin Board of Education to decide fate of East Middle School teacher
After hearing nearly 10 hours of testimony from more than a dozen witnesses and accepting more than 45 exhibits into evidence, members of the Joplin Board of Education voted to move behind closed doors Thursday night to decide whether Randy Turner, a communication arts teacher at East Middle School, will continue to teach.
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Memorial Day travelers bemoan high gas prices
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Cunningham Park vandalism estimated at $4,000
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No charges to be filed in Joplin shooting case
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Joplin team drove through storm to get to Moore
It was a long drive in the middle of a severe thunderstorm that had earlier produced a massive tornado in Moore, Okla. With the two-year anniversary of Joplin’s deadly twister approaching on Wednesday, a team of 14 Joplin emergency workers was ready to risk the trip in order to get help to a hurting Moore.
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Mike Pound: DVD smells like pizza; how great is that?
Just when I think the rest of the world is passing us by, this great country does something that renews my faith in innovation. It does something that renews my faith in that can-do spirit that led Charles Lindbergh to fly nonstop across the Atlantic, thus leading to the invention of the airplane bathroom.
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Families, friends invited to honor veterans with flags this weekend
