These are the times that try dogs’ souls – Mud Season.  Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Mud Season!  Nothing compares to the scent of freshly made mud from melting snow, and rolling in it brings a sense of pleasure that is beyond description.  However, Mom and Dad don’t share these sentiments, and Mud Season instead becomes a time of confinement and baths…lots of baths.  No longer are we allowed to freely romp outside.  Instead we are constantly being told the word, “NO!”  “No! Don’t roll there!”  “No! Don’t dig there!”  Or the even more offensive, “No! Get out of my clean living room you dirty smelly dog!”  For you see, our parents just don’t appreciate mud.

But what humans don’t understand is each season has its own unique qualities.  There are the fragrant flowers in Summer, crunchy leaves in Fall, magical snow in Winter, and in the Spring there’s mud.  We need Mud Season to fully appreciate all seasons.  As Thomas Paine once wrote, “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.  Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated.”  Ok, so perhaps Paine wasn’t referring to dogs during Mud Season, but the sentiments are the same.  So with that in mind, Asa and I will endure the constant nagging and baths, knowing that we are on the cusp of Summer and all the pleasures it brings with it.