With The Fishes
Being a Colorado native, I've never had much of a need for swimming. Growing up on a coast, I can imagine you might get to the beach quite a bit during the summer. But growing up in Colorado, the odds aren't very good that you'll fall out of a boat. There's not much water here.
Painful childhood memories came to the surface quite recently when we took our dog Macy swimming. Courtesy of the good folks at CRCG, we found an indoor swimming pool... for dogs.
Macy's first visit was really quite sad. She was terrified of the water, and while the experienced dogs were bounding into the pool chasing tennis balls and floaty toys, Macy ran along the deck barking. Occaisionally she'd get the nerve up to get her paws into the water, but that was about as much as she was willing to do. At one point a pool employee outfitted our fine dog in a life vest which, as the owner, was quite embarassing. All the other dogs were splashing and having fun while ours wallowed in the shallow area looking pretty foolish.
This took me back to summers spent with my friends. One friend in particular had a swimming pool in his backyard. All summer we played in the pool, and while I'm sure we had a good time, the feeling of being alone in the shallow end while the rest of the guys jumped off the diving board and cruised down the slide, left me unsettled while watching Macy.
The next visit to the dog pool was a bit more positive. Macy wasted no time getting her paws into the water and eventually found herself chest-deep reaching for the bobbing tennis balls within grasp of her long jaw. While this was all well and good, I grew frustrated and wound up giving Macy a bit of 'help' getting into the deeper water. As I was mindful of making sure she didn't sink to the bottom, her survivor insticts kicked in and she dog paddled her way to the shallow area. Granted, she had a panicked look on her face the whole way, but damnit, she swam!
This past Sunday marked our return visit to the pool. Macy's excitement heading toward the door relieved me of any guilt I may have felt for pushing her into the pool on our last visit. We started off with the pool to ourselves and Macy pussyfooting her way into the water she was comfortable with. After a while, a gorgeous English Lab arrived at the pool. Frasier was quite experienced with the whole scene and was unphased as Macy took floaty toys from him after he retrieved them from the deeper areas. But Frasier was wise to Macy's game and began leaving the toys floating in the water where Macy could grab them. This led to the lab leaving the toys a bit further out each time, taunting Macy with their attainability. Finally, the temptation of a toy got the best of Macy and she soon found herself paddling for dear life back to the shallow area... with a toy in her mouth. The excitment between myself and Macy's mom (yes, the wife) was just stupid. We celebrated this achievemnt with the kind of praise normally reserved for saving orphans from a burning building, but damnit... Macy swam. And she swam and swam and swam.
Maybe I'm just goofy, but I swear I saw Macy strut with pride after she got out of the pool. The expression on her face, while exhausted, looked quite happy. For myself, my swimming demons left me a year ago, after I learned to swim so I could complete a triathlong. Exciting the reservoir after close to a mile swim and Macy shaking herself off at the dog pool could have been parallel edited into some kind of montage with 'We Are The Champions' as the soundtrack, but for both of us, it wouldn't have been cliche. It would have been appropriate.
Painful childhood memories came to the surface quite recently when we took our dog Macy swimming. Courtesy of the good folks at CRCG, we found an indoor swimming pool... for dogs.
Macy's first visit was really quite sad. She was terrified of the water, and while the experienced dogs were bounding into the pool chasing tennis balls and floaty toys, Macy ran along the deck barking. Occaisionally she'd get the nerve up to get her paws into the water, but that was about as much as she was willing to do. At one point a pool employee outfitted our fine dog in a life vest which, as the owner, was quite embarassing. All the other dogs were splashing and having fun while ours wallowed in the shallow area looking pretty foolish.
This took me back to summers spent with my friends. One friend in particular had a swimming pool in his backyard. All summer we played in the pool, and while I'm sure we had a good time, the feeling of being alone in the shallow end while the rest of the guys jumped off the diving board and cruised down the slide, left me unsettled while watching Macy.
The next visit to the dog pool was a bit more positive. Macy wasted no time getting her paws into the water and eventually found herself chest-deep reaching for the bobbing tennis balls within grasp of her long jaw. While this was all well and good, I grew frustrated and wound up giving Macy a bit of 'help' getting into the deeper water. As I was mindful of making sure she didn't sink to the bottom, her survivor insticts kicked in and she dog paddled her way to the shallow area. Granted, she had a panicked look on her face the whole way, but damnit, she swam!
This past Sunday marked our return visit to the pool. Macy's excitement heading toward the door relieved me of any guilt I may have felt for pushing her into the pool on our last visit. We started off with the pool to ourselves and Macy pussyfooting her way into the water she was comfortable with. After a while, a gorgeous English Lab arrived at the pool. Frasier was quite experienced with the whole scene and was unphased as Macy took floaty toys from him after he retrieved them from the deeper areas. But Frasier was wise to Macy's game and began leaving the toys floating in the water where Macy could grab them. This led to the lab leaving the toys a bit further out each time, taunting Macy with their attainability. Finally, the temptation of a toy got the best of Macy and she soon found herself paddling for dear life back to the shallow area... with a toy in her mouth. The excitment between myself and Macy's mom (yes, the wife) was just stupid. We celebrated this achievemnt with the kind of praise normally reserved for saving orphans from a burning building, but damnit... Macy swam. And she swam and swam and swam.
Maybe I'm just goofy, but I swear I saw Macy strut with pride after she got out of the pool. The expression on her face, while exhausted, looked quite happy. For myself, my swimming demons left me a year ago, after I learned to swim so I could complete a triathlong. Exciting the reservoir after close to a mile swim and Macy shaking herself off at the dog pool could have been parallel edited into some kind of montage with 'We Are The Champions' as the soundtrack, but for both of us, it wouldn't have been cliche. It would have been appropriate.
posted by Pino at 6:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home