With the major drop in temperatures that has recently taken place in the Ozarks, I’ve heard people doing what people so often do when it comes to weather: Some are saying “this is more like it,” while others say “I’m already tired of the cold.”
Be that as it may, I know of one Texas County resident who’s very happy about the cool spell: Gertie (the Permapup), the Pembroke Welsh Corgi who resides with me and my wife, Wendy.
Seemingly in the blink of an eye, the 6-year-old girl has gone from being largely lethargic to bursting with energy. She went from lying around (a lot) one week to being active and enjoying being outside the next.
Her mornings went from “wake me up if the temperature ever drops below 9,000 degrees” to dashing toward the door to be let out at the crack of dawn (or as soon as one of us started moving around).
Of course, Gertie’s behavior stands to reason, because 86-degree days in October are virtually unheard of in Wales (“where she comes from”) and even summer months are usually pretty temperate.
To illustrate, the country of Wales lies on the west side of the United Kingdom at a latitude of about 51-degrees north, which is about the same as Vancouver, B.C. In other words, Gertie’s ancestors lived where the weather is usually either cold or cool, and rarely hot. In fact, the average high temperature in August in the Welsh capital city of Cardiff is about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the all-time record high is just over 92.
Not surprisingly, when we had weeks on end of hot-and-humid weather in the early portion of this autumn, Gertie was like, “I must have missed it when the decision was made to permanently move into a sauna.” Now that the cool stuff has hit, she’s more like, “the Sun’s up, let the fun begin!”
NEWCOMER GAINS ACCEPTANCE
Toward the beginning of this year, Wendy and I got Gertie her own dog, because she seemed to be acting lonely and a bit depressed. He’s a Scottish Terrier (more like Scottish Terrorist) who was born last November. His name is Scotty (yep, a Scottie named Scotty), and Gertie was at first pretty offended at his presence.
“No you didn’t bring that four-legged Brillo pad into my home!” she said. “I don’t need that; if I’m so depressed, why didn’t you just get me a therapist?”
Despite the rough start, the two are now best of friends. They wrestle for long periods each day, and run wild together in the yard, with Scotty showing just how fast a dog can run and Gertie smartly using geometry to find angles that help her to suddenly be barking her head off right on his tail.
What at first was a tense truce built on compromise has become a hilarious partnership. It’s apparent that the cool weather just enhances that, as the pair romps around outdoors, hardly panting when they’re done.
Gertie (the Permapup), left, lies next to her dog Scotty.
And for Wendy and I, it’s cool to have friendly canine representatives of two parts of the U.K. (Wales and Scotland) in our living room every night.
Anyway, I think I’m in agreement with Gertie and I’m glad the weather has cooled off for now. Obviously, the hot stuff will return in 2019 and the Permapup might just go back into her very own style of summer hibernation.
I can’t blame her. When it’s hot, it’s hard to get much accomplished, and I’d probably enjoy lying around a lot, too.
But alas, that’s something I’ll never know. Since I have thumbs and a big brain, there are things I have to do, you know?
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald.
Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.