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Taking a bath is hard work Pretty much everyone knows Hamish. Hamish is our border collie and as man's best friend, he's a welcome addition to Brown Farm. Every morning, when I go to the barn, he's there to greet me, tail waging, stretching and yawning as I open the door. He's a touchy-feely dog, having to lean against me as he does his early morning greeting ritual. He then goes about his job-- keeping an ongoing inventory of the sheep, circling each pen back and forth, every waking minute of the day while he's in the barn. The highlight of his day is to come to the house with The Sidekick and me, after I do evening chores. With Hamish's activities in the barn, he drinks a lot of water, and sometimes he gets stained under his neck. So once in a while, he needs a bath. The first thing I must stress about Hamish is his complete and unconditional love for The Sidekick and I. He will come to either of us when called, even if he knows he's done something wrong. But Monday night, as he and I entered the basement, I put the drain plug in the laundry tub and he suddenly decided to avoid eye contact. You see he equates the plug with the `b' word, otherwise known as a bath. He stood at the top of the basement stairs, waiting for me to open the door. I could read his mind, "If I don't look in his direction, he'll forget I'm here..." Wrong. I called him. He shot a glance over his shoulder, then went back to studying the door in front of him... "Just a minute, I wanted to look at this really interesting door again.." "Hamish, come here," I repeated, raising my voice just a tiny bit. He decided it was hopeless to look at the door any longer-- it wasn't working. Ears flat against his head, I lifted him into the laundry tub, half-full of warm water. Save $500 per person on these two specially selected AmaWaterways River Cruises 7 The IFP · Halton Hills, Thursday, January 26, 2012 EUROPE RIVER CRUISE SAVINGS Europe's Rivers & Castles Ted Brown I tell ya, if looks could kill, you'd be reading my obit here. I lathered him up, I talked to him-- he wasn't impressed. After I rinsed him off, I lifted him out, and set him outside the walk-out basement door, to shake off the water. A big cloud of steam enveloped him, as he shook until he was `dry' enough by my standards. "C'mon in," I yelled, and he bolted into the warmth of the basement again. The next part was the fun part-- the towel. For some reason, a towel means play time. As I wiped off his feet, his legs, and his tail, he growled in delight. The best part? When I wrap the towel around his head and rub him down. Once `dry', (okay, sort of dry) he headed upstairs to the kitchen where he presented himself to The Sidekick. He likes to rub his damp fur against her leg, probably just to get a response. Later in the evening, I checked his fur and found it was still a bit damp. He was about two hours from returning to the barn-- too damp to be going outside. Out came the hair dryer, and in spite of the fact he wasn't excited about this part of the process, we styled him dry with the hair dryer. He looked like a giant stuffed animal. Minutes later, he climbed up between us and dozed off. I turned to The Sidekick as his limp body snored between us. "Seems taking a bath is really hard work," I commented. July 21 or August 9 2012 14 Days - 3 nights in Paris, an enchanting 7-night cruise from Luxembourg to Nuremberg onboard either the AmaLyra or AmaDolce plus 2 nights in Prague. 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