Coat of Many Colors

House painting!  Can there be a more tedious task?  It seems that, like a lot of other people, we spend a significant amount of time, energy and money giving our home an annual facelift.  New paint inside and out, bright shiny colors in various shades and palettes. 

Now painting is not one of my favorite pass times, especially given that our summers are short here. When renos and upgrades are on the agenda, there is very little time for long, lazy summer relaxation in a lounge chair with a book or e-reader in my hands.  No sir, until the house looks resplendent in fresh new shades, the only thing in my hands is a paint brush or roller.

Some of you may know that the “baby” of my family is a beautiful long-eared, golden-haired, brown-eyed Beagle named Mica, a.k.a. Mommy’s shadow.  So, on one recent foray into rainbow land, I gathered all the necessary supplies and set off to paint the side deck – two colors of course.

Close on my heels came the baby.  Within the first few minutes, I knew that this wasn’t going to work out well.  Being a hound dog, her nose leads her into many places in which she should not venture.  This time, her nosey nose came out of the paint tray with a white tip.  Exercising as much care as I would with a newborn child, I gently wiped away most of the paint from her snout with a soft tissue and warned her to keep her nose out of trouble from then on.

No such luck!  Before long, the dark areas of her Beagle coloring were noticeably streaked with white while her white fur sported numerous splotches of yellow.  Even the pads of her paws left tell-tale marks everywhere she stepped.  Putting her inside the house and shutting the door proved to be a lesson in futility as her trademark hound dog howl soon had the neighbors wondering what on earth I was doing to the poor animal.  She obviously was intent on maintaining her role as Mommy’s perpetual sidekick.

By the end of the day, I had a lovely looking deck and a not so lovely looking dog.  A soapy bath helped remove some of the mess, but not all.  Over the next couple of weeks, as other areas of the house were treated to newly decorated walls, my little Beagle companion began to wear a coat of many colors, just like Joseph in the Bible.

Despite the multiple delays to wipe as much paint as possible off various sections of her furry body, her steadfast determination and implacable resolve to be by my side was touching.  We can learn much from the faithful love of a dog.  Following a pooch spa treatment, she looked as good as new.  There shouldn’t be any reason to wear her coat of many colors in the foreseeable future.  Mommy’s paint brush has been retired!