Useless and Uselesser

Joining Jetty on his cottage holiday was his cousin Ollie. Usually we refer to them as Dumb and Dumber — well-earned nicknames. However, this week we had to change it up to Useless and Uselesser. After lunch one day we were sitting in the living room, the dogs passed out on the floor, blissfully dreaming of chipmunks, squirrels, and sticks, when Jenn spied a bear out the back window. As we raced to the window, I grabbed my camera and dispatched Graham to the cabin to warn the girls to stay inside. While we watched the bear's progress across the property, something in our tones alerted the dogs that there was excitement afoot, and they woke up from their naps and came to join us. Up until that point, the dogs had been very good about warning us of any impending dangers, such as Grandpa's arrival, which resulted in 10 minutes of fierce barking, the comings and goings of all the neighbours on their docks, and the imminent threat from the chipmunks who live in the front lawn. But bears — not so much. What happened to the theory that bears will stay away because of the smell of dogs, and the other theory that dogs will smell the arrival of a bear and warn it off with their barking? Unfortunately for us, Useless and Uselesser apparently only hunt small game.

Portuguese Water-averse Dog

Hey Cheryl & Mike, according to my calculations you owe us $666.66; with Jet we only got 2/3 of what we anticipated. We took Jetty to the cottage this week and had visions of him swimming merrily around with Gilly and Sarah, chasing sticks, and keeping the loons at bay. Umm, not so much. On the first day, Graham tried to entice him into the shallow part, but he was having none of it. Tactics changed a little bit to include less enticement and more pushing. We determined that he can in fact swim, but he doesn't like to, not even a little bit. The next day, he and cousin Ollie were racing around the dock when Jetty lost his back end and slid straight into the drink. He dunked under, but came up again quickly and, because he was touching with his back legs, wasn't actually in any danger, but he was completely panicked. He tried to scramble up onto the dock but couldn't make it. Gilly and Sarah bravely rescued him by dragging him around the dock to the stairs, incurring some nasty scratches from his frantic claws. He spent the rest of the week studiously avoiding contact with any water that wasn't safely contained in his doggie dish. So, while I freely admit he's a dog, and am even willing to admit there's a possibility that he's Portuguese, there's no way he's a water dog — false advertising! I guess should have expected something like this, given that every time it rains Princess Jet finds a way to skitter, shimmy, or leap around the puddles. What a sissy.