Here's my weekend lemons-to-lemonade story, courtesy of our puppy Storm.

When the little guy came trotting in from his mid-morning potty break on Saturday, he was covered in terra cotta-colored Virginia mud. It was all over his face, his legs, his tummy, and now our carpet. It was all I could do to get the clay-coated pooch back out the door before he started wiping himself off on the furniture.

The source of his filth was a small area under the stairs of our deck. Three summers ago we landscaped along the back of our house, and we added an in-ground water fountain under the deck steps that we could see from our basement patio.

Two summers ago we had the patio screened, and while we are thrilled with the patio, it obscured the view of the fountain.

During the construction of the screens, our contractor's border collie burrowed into the soft cool ground below the steps and behind the fountain for naps. This was not really an issue until Coral, the greyhound we adopted in the fall, started digging in the hole this spring.

We put two heavy, empty planters in the space to discourage her, but she just dug around them. We've been meaning to solve this problem, but have never found the ambition to do it when we had the time.

When Storm joined the family, he joined Coral in the excavation. It was like doggie bonding, but we stopped them when we caught them.

Friday's rain turned the innocuous hole into a mud pit, and our pit bull puppy had great fun becoming encrusted in it on Saturday.

So we gave Storm a bath in Coral's doggie pool, which did not thrill the little dude at all. Then we knew we had to fix the hole.

We decided to use dirt and rocks and try to fill it in. While we were at it, we planned to clean out the neglected fountain; the submerged tub was now full of mud and rocks from the doggie digs.

But since we weren’t really enjoying the fountain in its current location, my husband had the brilliant idea to bring it into the screened-in patio where we could see it. So we bought some plants for the empty planters and arranged them so they conceal the fountain's tub.

We filled in the hole, covered it in mulch and ran a little wire fence around it. The dogs have not bothered to climb over it, so no more digging.

So we now thank our little mud monster for helping us to get motivated and for inspiring us to create a little Zen garden in our favorite space. Good boy!

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• Posted by Nona Nelson in Bringing up puppy
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