Whoa Nelly.  It rained hard here today.  Like build an ark hard.  It was raining sideways much of the day.  At one point I had to get to my car and I was absolutely soaked.  Liesl, my little beach baby, who loves to play in the surf of the Pacific, refused to go out in it.  At one point I was standing out in the rain in pajamas and slippers begging her to go.  She just stood at the doorway like, "No way, Mom."  She is made of sugar and will melt away in the rain.  sigh.

We are expecting an even bigger storm here on Sunday.  The one today caused a bit of damage and flooding.  Hopefully, there is an opportunity to clean up the area before the next one hits.  

I was doing a little research online earlier about dog behavior.  This is always an interesting subject to me.  There is also a lot of interpretation that differentiates over different behaviors.  I was looking because in the past year Liesl has started sitting on my feet but only after I give her hand signals that I would like to rub her head and ears.  When she sees me give the signal, she will come over and sit on my feet while I give her a little head massage.  Now several web pages say that it means that a dog is disrespecting you.  Others say that it means that they just want to be close to you.  To me, it just looks like she is just looking for a warm place to sit and does not want me wandering off.  Like all dogs, she loves when I rub her ears.  

I believe in massage for dogs as much as I do for people.  I was in a class once where it was said that dogs carry their stress in their hindquarters.  Therefore, it is a good idea to massage their rear and their back legs in the evening.  So generally, I give my stressed out from being spoiled schnauzer a little mini massage.  She loves this time.  I was told by my doctor that it is important for circulation in particular and he thought it would be really healthy for dogs, too.  I figure it is just nice to give her the focused attention, but I am glad that it has health benefits, too.  I think there are a lot of health benefits of giving and receiving love.