My canine pals: Meet Atchison, the formerly white Lab.

Oh my. It rained here in ABQ yesterday. We needed it. Desperately. Drought. Heat. All that. After it stopped, I let the little guy outside (and I use that adjective loosely, considering he weighs 86 pounds) to do his business. This is how he returned. I only wish that my memory card had not been full and that I had taken a better picture so that you could see his face. It was much worse than it looks. It was. Ever so. Mud from nose to tail. Thick. Dense. Undercarriage black. It took many washcloths to get him clean. (He refused to get in the bath. Yes, I'm puppy-whipped. And picking him up and putting him into the tub? Not hardly.) At any rate, he had a very good time outdoors. He did. And I spent 40 minutes getting him clean. Yes, 40.