When spring comes, it’s a time for many wonderful things, like green grass and blooming flowers. It also brings on a host of other things, including seasonal allergies, pollen, and the return of gnats and mosquitoes if you live below the Mason-Dixon like I do. You may be familiar with these typical cons of an otherwise wonderful season, but springtime brings its own special breed of woes to our household.
1. Hair splinters
Springtime means growing grass, warming weather, and shedding hair. Lots of hair. That means an increase in furbleweeds and the onset of hair splinters. Never heard of them? If you’re one of the lucky ones who has a dog with longer hair or at least soft, flexible hair, you’ve probably never had a hair splinter. My dog’s hair is short and soft but stiff, so that means when I’m sock surfing across the living room or even just getting up to go to the bathroom during the night my feet are at risk. More than once I’ve felt a sharp, shooting pain in my toes, the cause being a small hair that has forced it’s way into my flesh like a splinter. It can only be removed with tweezers in bright light … if you can find it.
2. Dandelion perfume
You may not know this, but dandelions stink. Like really, really stink. Sure, they’re fun to make wishes with and such, but they have an odor that sticks with you and can smell up your whole house if your dog happens to enjoy rolling in them like mine does. It doesn’t matter that he gets routine baths — there are dandelions where we walk and all in the backyard where he does his business. Even if I can prevent an all-out rolling fest, those pesky dandelion leaves still crush between his toes and leave their acrid stench on his paws for me to smell the rest of the day.
3. Pollen vomit
We have lots of pine trees in our yard. They have these weird little caterpillar-looking things that grow and distribute pollen. Unfortunately, they have some strange appeal to my dog. He likes the way they crunch and he’ll go out of his way to find them, chew on them, eat them, whatever he can do before I notice what he’s up to. The little crunchy pollen holders also fall apart in these little grainy parts very easily, so they tickle his throat and get stuck to his mouth. A couple hacking coughs and my floor is granted a watery, foamy pool of pollen vomit. Thanks, spring.
4. Puddle poops
No, I’m not referring to diarrhea. I’m referring to actually pooping in a puddle. Springtime means rain, rain means puddles, and Axle likes to poop in puddles. Not only does he like to poop in puddles, it seems that he forgets that he pooped in puddles and later runs through them, splashing smelly poop water all over his legs. That’s pretty gross, and you can imagine the extreme difficulty of trying to extract a puddle poop with the poop-scooper.
5. The walking salad bar
With all the lush green grass growing again, a simple walk ceases to be a training or exercise time and instead becomes a smorgasbord of salad greens for Axle to peruse and sample at his leisure. He sometimes gets so overeager about sampling the lushes blades of grass that he’ll vomit a pool of smushed up grass and slobber. If I’m not quick enough, he’ll then eat his icky grass vomit.
What about you? What does the season bring to your household? Let me know in the comments!
Read more about dogs and spring on Dogster:
- 10 Ways Dogs Traditionally Welcome Spring
- Spring Cleaning the Dog-Friendly Way
- 10 Spring Cleaning Tips for Dog People
Learn more about dogs with Dogster:
- The 10 Biggest Misconceptions About Guide Dogs for the Blind
- 6 Things to Remember When You Have a Fearful Dog
- Four Things You Should Know About Your Dog’s Growl
About Meghan Lodge: Fits the Aquarius definition to a fault, loves animals, and is always pushing for change. Loves ink, whether it’s in tattoos, books, or writing on that pretty sheet of blank paper. Proud parent of one human child, one dog (Axle) and one cat (Toby). I’m a former quiet nerd who’s turned bubbly animal-obsessed advocate.
