Independence Day

Updated July 5th-scroll all the way down the page

Wiley is feeling very patriotic. He just insisted I take pictures of him all dressed up in his 4th of July outfit. See?  Doesn't this face say "please dress me and take pictures, Mom?"

Ok well I guess it looks more like he's regretting every life decision he's made up until this point.

 But for most of the pictures he was extremely compliant.

I cannot say the same thing for the sunshine, however.

I envisioned taking lots of great pictures outside in the beautiful sun, but here in the Northeast we haven't seen any sun in five days. Hence I have pictures of Wiley sitting in the kitchen in his designer eyewear.

Whatever- he still looks amazing. BOL. Anyway I was determined to give Wiley a picnic, so we braved the intermittent rain so he could enjoy his watermelon cookie from the local pet store.

Now, here's a little secret. I motivate Wiley to cooperate for these outdoor shoots with baby carrots. When we're outside all he wants to do is play with his ball so I need something to distract him. He was quite confused when he got this because he wasn't sure if I wanted him to eat it or the carrot. So you can sort of see the hesitancy in his expression.

"I can have this?"

"You're sure I can chew this up?"

Once he got the green light, though, he went to work.

I was even able to snap a shot of his congealed drool! You're welcome.

Overall Wiley was quite cooperative given we were getting rained on and I was lying on the ground and he was very very confused. He did get distracted when the neighbors came out. They usually throw his ball for him so he was very torn about whether to stick around with me and get baby carrots or head over to the fence. In this picture you can see how he couldn't quite take his eyes off them.

Did I mention they don't know I write a blog so to them all they saw was a chubby woman rolling around in the grass and a dog sitting on a picnic blanket dressed in 4th of July paraphernalia.  While it rained.  So yeah. . .  I'm sure they had a good story to tell their friends. 

Well, time to go eat hot dogs and apple pie or whatever else I'm culturally obliged to do on this fine American day. Have a lovely day wherever you are. Much love from Wiley and me.

UPDATE: JULY 5th

As July 4th wound to a close I was hanging out with Wiley's friend Leroy for a bit. I decided to see if I could get him to wear a few of Wiley's accessories for some festive pictures. 

His dad was dubious, but he underestimated the power of liver treats. 

I'd like to think my charm and persuasion had something to do with it too, of course. The beads alone took a few tries. But once he had them on he wore them with pride.

Now, in most of these pictures you can really see the drool accumulating around Leroy's muzzle. At one point I was so caught up with affection for Leroy's cooperative behavior that I used both hands to pet him on the sides of his face. Yeah.  That ended very wetly. Just look at all that white foam. ick.

Anyway, when it came time to try the headband Luke, Leroy's dad, didn't think I'd be able to get him to keep it on long enough for a picture. He tried to help by telling Leroy to sit, but all it did was distract Leroy from LIVER TREATS. You can see Leroy's impatience here as he turns to tell Luke off. Sorry it's a little blurry.

"DAD! I'm in the middle of something!"

 When all was said and done, we got this picture, my absolute favorite.

 Do I know some great dogs or what?  I'm a lucky lady. And all of you readers should be feeling pretty patriotic by now.



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