Bathtime at Barkingham Palace

The UK has been blessed with quite a bit of snow in recent weeks. Ellie, like me, loves snow. Afterall, what's not to like? However, as is the way with snow, as it has melted it has left us with several flooded areas along our walk route. That wouldn't be so bad if it was, say, a nice urban route full of tarmac walkways and trees that blow in the gentle sun-kissed breeze. However, it isn't. Our walk route is desolate farm land, with ditches to navigate across, large dips, and a hill that, I swear gets higher with each year.

Now, as any Border Collie owner will tell you, if there is one thing that a Border Collie loves more than a ball, it's running around in mud! The wetter, the gloopier, and the stickier, the better!

After today's walk, Ellie was just a little too filthy for me to be able to ignore it. She had to go in the bath! It was that, or I follow her around the house with a scrubbing brush and towel all day long.

I've bathed Ellie since she was a pup as I didn't want one of those dogs that panics when they see bath. It's fair to say that she's pretty good in the bath. You have to watch her and comfort her, as, I feel sure, given the opportunity, she would jump out and do a runner, making sure to shake the muddy water along her route as she did so, but overall, she's happy to stand there and let me shower her. But her face. Oh, the face! I swear, you would think that I had stolen her first-born from her and fed it to her! She looks an absolutely misery while being showered. And if that isn't bad enough, I then have to blow dry her. By this time, according to her miserable face, I've started feeding her the entire litter!

However, at the end of it, I have a lovely clean Border Collie, complete with dazzling white 'paint-pot' paws and tail. Until tomorrow...