Sunsets & Water

Last night while Vickie waited for some of the pups to be picked up by their families, She happened to look into the eastern sky and was amazed at the beautiful powder blue shades that coverd the horizon above the silky white of the mountains. It was wonderful. She was so caught up in the sight that I had to jump on her to get her attention drawn to the western sky where we both sat for about 10 minutes watching the beam of light that soared from the earth skyward. It was breathtaking.....

I think it was a sign that things are going to warm up a degree or two because this morning when I went out to releive myself, it actually made it to the ground before it froze.

All this cold weather is starting to get to Vickie and I hate to admit it but I am finding it less and less attractive each day. I've noticed Vickie doesn't take me to the park or on walks near as much when it is cold. I miss the days when we would go to the park and I could go swimming in the lakes and streams at the Fort.

I remember going for walks with some of the other dogs that come to Canine Country Club. Of course Zeus is my favorite walking companion but I would have a lot of fun when I went with Gus and Cleo too. It was fun to watch Gus drag Vickie all over the park for the first half hour.

Her arms would be stretched out, her body leaning backwards for balance and Gus just a pullin. He was always in a hurry to get somewhere fast.

One day on our walk we met a really nice man who lives in the park. He had the greatest smells about him. Gus was a little nervous about him. He barked and stood at the side of the trail while I went to check this guy out. Boy did he smell like a lot of different things. My favorite smell among all the excellent aromas was the smell of campfires. Vickie says we will be doing a lot of camping this summer and I am really looking forward to smelling that smell again.

Gus and Cleo are really fun to be around. They really have a lot of character. I think Gus can teach me a lot. Not swimming though. He doesn't like the water as much as me. One day while we were at the park, I got into the stream to play.

It was really fun. The water was flowing really fast and I would jump in and swim upstream to the other shore, get out and jump in again. Gus and Cleo watched but didn't come into the swift stuff like me.

I was still pretty young and small and I guess I didn't know how quickly you can get tired playing this hard and so on the last time I jumped in Vickie say's I almost drowned. I didn't know that was what was happening but it was a weird experience.

I was trying to swim up stream when all of a sudden I started to sink. My mouth filled with water, then up my nose. Soon it covered my eyes ears and head. It was a little scary. I kept paddling and shortly my nose and mouth surfaced and I grabbed a big gulp of air. Vickie was on the shore screaming something like "Swim Bert, Come over here Bert, Come"

It didn't make a lot of sense to me, what she was saying so I just kept paddling my four little legs. Then I started to sink again. Now I am getting pretty tired and a little worried. This didn't seem to be working out as I had planned. Mouth, nose, ears, eyes, and head go down again.

Surfacing one more time, I still didn't get it and quickly sunk again. As I was heading down for the third time, I saw Gus and Cleo standing on the shore watching and Vickie hollering something and heading toward me. She was truly in a panic. I decided that if I came up one more time, I better go find out what was wrong with her.

I stayed under the water a little longer that last time and I think I may have been concerned because when I finally did come up, I started trying to get out of the swift water and headed to Vickie. I was pretty glad when she reached out and grabbed me and pulled me to shore. Whew!!! It was quite and experience. Cleo actually came over and nuzzled me, Gus just snorted and turned away. I think I had ruined the walk for him.

Vickie was shaking and we went home right after that. It was some time before we went back to the park and now she only lets me go to the lake to play. I think she wants to wait until I am bigger before she lets me play in the river and deep fast moving streams. Such a worrier.