Swamp Puppy

A couple of months ago I did a home visit for TVCDR and met a wonderful family that soon joined the ranks of cattle dog owners by adopting a blue boy named Ollie. They invited us to go kayaking with them in the Sparkleberry Swamp. Jake had never been canoeing but he's pretty game for everything as long as he's with his mom. We popped Jake in his lifejacket, only to have him immediately roll in stinky swamp mud and clover. We threw a quite pungent Jake in the canoe...



Our mini fleet consisted of two kayaks and our big canoe. Jake would start whining anytime his "herd" broke up. At one point the four-seater kayak with the three little girls disappeared around a bend. Jake began his howling song. He sounded so sad that the kayak came back to make sure he was okay. He immediately sat down rather satisfied with himself that we had come together again.







Jake did really well in general. He kept trying to "help" me paddle (i.e. I need to put my paddle in the water -- Jake puts his head smackdab in the way to see what I'm doing). At one point we figured out he had to potty but he didn't understand that there was nothing solid to stand on for potty purposes. We were close to a little "island" of floating plants and he took a flying leap out of the canoe. It scared me to death when I saw him panic and get all tangled up in those plants. We kept calling to him and he got more and more entangled. I was so thankful that he had his lifejacket on. Using the three boats, we were able to aim him back to our canoe. He decided he could hold it until we found land. This was my first time canoeing, too, and my arms were so ready to give out after paddling for five hours. Jake had been riding pressed up against my back but just when I didn't think I would paddle any more, Jake stepped up to help be my co-pilot:


Jake was exhausted working all day herding his boats and helping me paddle.