Sunday, July 5, 2009
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.