Atop The Sated Earth

Barley, a dog, moist for a third post in a row, trots down a path beside exposed earth that is visibly saturated with water. Despite enjoying the look and feel of the outdoors right after the rain, I try not to spend too much time walking Barley under those conditions. The villain the rears its head under such conditions is mud. While mulch and (to a lesser extent) grass to reasonably well at remaining walkable, bare earth that has become saturated can quickly become a micro-quagmire, giving Barley unfortunately little earthen booties. I’m not inclined to walk around with a roll of paper towels, so if her feet get mud-encrusted there’s not a ton I can do until I’m indoors somewhere, and I generally need to venture far enough into wherever I have arrived to get something to wiper her feet that she’ll end up leaving a lot of mud on the floor anyway. If we happen to be arriving at home, there’s a dedicated “mud towel” of course, but it’s just my luck that Barley’s worst run-ins with ankle-deep mud have all happened far from home, with the car being a mandatory intermediary location before I can get her feet refreshed.
Read more →