A dog, a flood, a tumble, and a tale

…more adventures from Dudley

J. Dudley Gilbert here, and do I have a story to tell YOU!

Most of my life is serene because I picked a family who are - how I do I say this? - mature. Really mature.

So, most of my life is quiet, except for a bit of running up and down the stairs fetching toys in the hope of wearing me out, and blissful moments of play dates with neighboring dogs. Oh, I’ve had bits of excitement, but there is no point in repeating those stories because they are already part of the archives of this column, but TODAY was special!

TODAY, my she-human had thoughts of flesh-eating bacteria, and the potential for my sudden death as I tumbled down an eroded embankment.

What,??! you say?

At the moment, I am living in Okoboji with my humans. If you watch the television news, you might have heard about the devastating floods that have hit this region.

Me? I watch it all unfold from the safety of my balcony, overlooking the spectacle.

Lots of humans have been running around, wrapping ropes around boats so they don’t blow away, big barges come in to raise hoists, and so forth. There’s a lot of chatter coming from humans about how awful it is, and they share reports of the misfortune of others who have water coming into their homes, and folks can’t even access Jones Beach.

There is a place just south of here where the river split the town in half, and videos of waves lapping the local Dairy Queen spell trouble every where.

Here, where I live, my family is just high enough from the water’s edge that our dwelling is ok, but not so the docks and boats 20-some steps away.

I have only been on the planet since July 26 of last year, so I don’t have much perspective, but folks who have lived here forever say it’s the worst they’ve ever seen.

Of course, I am a dog - well, a puppy - and it’s all new to me.

My he-human had to leave town for a couple of days, so when my she-human said, “Dudley, let’s have an adventure!” I was all in.

The truth is, this story probably wouldn’t have unfolded had he been in town. My she-human, I think, has some puppy in her DNA, and we get into mischief some times when he’s not around.

We drove about 10 minutes, got out of the car, and started walking down a sidewalk with a beautiful view from another side of the lake. She wanted to see a part of a hill leading down to the water that had eroded, and washed away.

I had my harness and leash on, but trotted ahead of her as she fumbled for her iPhone camera. I jumped into the brush, then tumbled down the hill, kind of like a summersault, and was surprised to discover I could not get back up, no matter how many times she called my name.

I yelped when she called, because I was sure I was going to die. I could not see her and I got super scared as her voice seemed to move far, far away!

Then, there she was! Waist deep in water, teetering on a remnant of a broken dock on the rocks, coaxing me to come to her from the waters edge.

Oh my God, oh my God, I have only been swimming a couple of times and I didn’t think I could do it, so I yelped again, very scared, then moved toward her and - wow - I forgot, I CAN swim! I doggy paddled toward her, and she grabbed me by my harness and I was SAFE.

Whew.

We rushed home, both lathered up in the shower to get rid of any flesh-eating bacteria some say could be contaminating the lake, thanks to raw sewage leaking from backed-up storm drains.

My bath was twice as long as usual, just to make sure we got all the icky water off, and I pranced around the entire living room shaking water from my fur, diving into first the towel she held open for me, then the sofa, my bed, and then the chair, just to get dry.

To be continued…