I can swim! I can swim! I can swim!
Big deal, you say? All dogs can swim, you say?
Well, except for a very brief experience when I was little, this was one of the first times I’ve been able to do this thing called ‘swim.’
I got to go to a ‘beach dog park’ on the Gulf of Mexico and it was the best day of my life (so far).
The water here tastes like when I lick a human’s arm after they’ve been outside in the heat a long time.
My humans introduced me to other humans at this place, calling them my ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’ and a dog they called my ‘cousin’ (he’s a lot bigger). That was fun. The humans liked me although my cousin was a bit leery at first. People say I have a lot of energy — but I think he liked me, anyway. He tried to show me how to swim, but I need to watch a few YouTube videos of dogs swimming to really get the hang of it. My cousin, Jake, sailed smoothly through the water, but not me. He is so cool.
The first lesson was like the one I had when I was little. My human walked into the water and started backing away from me. Well, I follow her EVERY WHERE SHE GOES, so - ofcourse - I began heading in her direction.
Whoosh, the sand beneath my paws disappeared. That is a very disconcerting feeling. But, there was my human, 10 feet away, so I had to some how keep going. My front paws tried to walk in the water, but mostly they made me kind of bounce up and down. She kept saying what a good boy I was, so I persevered.
The strangest thing happened! The water lifted me up and I felt as if I was floating. It was fun until a big swell of water smashed me in my face. That salty water got in my eyes, and I did not like it, so turned around and headed back to shore. My human, thankfully, came from behind and helped keep me going. We did this a couple of times, and once back on blessed land, I leapt and twirled in the air and burrowed my entire body in the sand, rendering moot every penny that was spent on the dog groomer who’d sprayed me with perfume the day before.
I am a dog, after all. Given a choice, I’ll take sand and dead fish any day.
The best part of it all was I didn’t have to have that doggone leash pulling on me, and there were dogs everywhere, and most of them liked me!
All for now. May you, dear reader, have a day at the beach unleashed some time soon.
J. Dudley
Well done, Master Dudley, well done!
That sounds like so much fun. Everyone should be unleashed! And on the beach.