Spring Cleaning

There's something about going to your breed's Nationals that bring out the Spring Cleaning in us. It makes sense that our dogs must be bathed and groomed to perfection, but for some of us more OCD types, that carries into everything else that the dog is involved in. The car must be cleaned inside and out. Crates and bedding washed. Everything must be shiny. It's a wonderful thing.
We are leaving tomorrow for our National. All the herding lessons are done with for now, the car is gassed up, the shopping done, and yesterday's weather was perfect for my Spring Cleaning marathon. It began with bathing the dogs.
I didn't plan it very well, silly me. I just got the doggie shampoo, some towels and OOF! lifted 50-lb Moto into the tub. Everything went just fine until his bath was over. OOF! lifted him out and was going to let him outside until I realized my mistake: we have that beautiful back yard, nice and grassy. If you've ever bathed a dog you realize once you put it in the yard, it promptly will run around like crazy and then roll and scratch in the grass and undo everything you've just done. I refuse to take a green Sheltie to the Nationals, so I realized I needed to put wet dogs on the deck, but I hadn't put up the barrier to keep them from exiting the deck to the grass below. I had to leave a wet squirrley Sheltie running wild in the house while I quickly ran to the basement, grabbed the barrier, ran thru the house and onto the deck and put it up. By the time this was done a large portion of the house was wet with Moto bathwater. Sigh.
Pinch was next, and now that everything was in place, went as planned.
Feeling smug as while I was bathing dogs, I'd put all their bedding in the washer. I love multi-tasking. Next the crates they travel in needed to be washed. Thinking I'd keep the wet dogs company on the deck, I lugged the crates out there with a bucket of water, soap and yet more towels. This was a bad plan. The reason is because as I was undoing the bolts that hold the crate together, in my clumsiness I dropped one. It fell between the slats onto the grass below. Again, sigh. Over the barrier, down the stairs and onto the grass to look for the tiny bolt. The heavens were smiling on me as I quickly found it. It occurred to me that I might want to put these errant bolts into a bowl. This too was a bad plan. You see, even though Pinch is one year old now, there's still some puppy in him. He thought that bowl looked awfully fun and had fun shiny things in it and he should paw at said bowl. Everything spilled, and a few bolts escaped onto the lawn below...again. Repeat previous step. Lesson learned: put bowl in lap and quickly move to railing once bolts are removed.
I expected Moto's crate to be dirty because he is like his dad, who just seemed to attract dirt but HEAVENS! I couldn't believe how dirty his crate was. All they do is LIE in there - how could it get so bad? I soaped and scrubbed and soon his crate looked brand new. I was pleased. I assumed Pinch's crate would be easier to clean because it was a newer crate, he was a breed dog and didn't love dirt like Moto but HOLY CRAP! This dog is a freak. It was in worse shape than Moto's! With elbow grease his crate too returned to its original state of cleanliness.
As the sun went down I had nice shiny dogs with beautifully trimmed feet and very clean ears. Crates were re-assembled and fluffy sweet-smelling bedding was returned to their interior. My Dog Show car was pristine. Ah, the satisfaction of it all.
Then I saw the huge pile of things I planned to try to fit into the car.
I'll think about that tomorrow.