I always knew Haskell was a "bird dog"...

My dogs are shedding. Shedding like you would not believe. Actually “shedding” isn’t the right word for it. It’s more the Great Fluff Exodus of 2008.

In other words: it is bad this year. Especially with Haskell. It’s almost like he’s doing it on purpose. I know how that sounds, but I swear the shedding problem got exponentially worse after last week’s vet appointment. It was just Haskell’s annual checkup. No big deal. He’s completely healthy…except the vet thinks Haskell needs to go on a diet and lose two or three pounds. The Doc actually referred to my dog as “Husky Haskell”, and asked if Haskell was active (my answer, “Yes, but not voluntarily”).

Poor little guy. The cut in kibble has definitely NOT gone unnoticed. Nor have the longer walks around the neighborhood and lake. Haskell always starts out strong, with his tail held high. But after about half an hour, the tail starts to droop and his pace slows until Gypsy and Alley are all but out of sight ahead of him. I think Haskell believes I’m trying to kill him. And it has only been one week. Or seven weeks (in dog time).

But I digress.

Back to the hair problem: I’ve gotten into the habit of trying to brush both of my dogs at night before I go to bed. I have a FURminator (i.e. the BEST pet brush EVER), and using it regularly is all part of my effort to stay on top of problem - lest my house, furniture and floor be covered in black dog fuzz. The ritual usually involves me (sometimes Trevor) taking the dogs outside on the deck in the backyard, and…well, brushing them. Generally, after about 10-15 minutes of vigorous grooming, I have enough defluffed hair to build two additional dogs lying around the deck in grayish clumps. I’m constantly surprised that THAT much hair can come off of a dog every single night without one of them going bald. It’s seriously amazing.

Anyway, I generally pick up the clumps of hair and dispose of them (because large clumps of dog hair lying around the backyard is gross), but I have been leaving a hairball or two out every now and again for the nesting birds in the area. There is a nest in the tree overlooking my driveway and backyard that is completely full of dog hair. How do I know this? Well, two or three weekends ago I was outside brushing my dogs, and couldn’t help but notice these two birds that kept flying down into the yard and picking up HUGE clumps of dog hair and flying away with it. This process of collecting hair continued for a little more than an hour (at which time I finally located their nest way up high in the tree). And now there is a soon-to-be mama bird diligently sitting on eggs, which excites me to no end (baby birdies! Weeeeee!). Guess it is true what they say: One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure (except I am a woman and we are discussing a bird nest and dog hair, but whatev).

However, I found out today that I’m being too stingy with the number of hairballs I’m leaving behind for the birds. This morning I encountered five birds (5!) fighting over one of last night’s disregarded hair clumps in the flower bed just off the side of the deck. I wanted to run out screaming, “No need to fight guys! There is plenty more where that came from!” But I didn’t. They wouldn’t understand and would probably just fly away (because, you know…they are birds and all). So, I did what any rational person would do: I took Haskell outside, brushed him and deposited the hairballs in the various flowerbeds in my backyard. And you know what?! Most of them were gone this evening when I got home. Which means nothing except that Haskell and Gypsy fluff is popular bedding for birds.

Does that make me the Mattress Giant of the Avian Kingdom?