Isa's Story

It was not what anyone would call an early start but it was an absolutely perfect day both for a road trip and for playing in the river. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do the two-hour drive to our favorite spot, there are plenty of excellent spots between  here and there. In the end it was so pretty I just kept driving – there are far worse things. And I am calling this a major victory in the “be more dog” category. My to-do list generally reigns supreme over my weekends.

So here are a couple of videos:

I went a little nuts with the video – I tried to restrain myself with what I posted and at least they’re short.

Oh that water was so, so cold! My feet hurt standing in it but eventually acclimated, give or take. Any idea I entertained of going for a swim myself disappeared quickly. Instantly. I’m not that tough.

A beautiful young GSD (quad) stopped by for a swim too. His human threw rocks for him to swim after … I stifled an inclination to smack the guy up-side his head. Isa watched for a while and started to swim to the splashes but lost interest when she saw there was nothing floating to bring back. It’s all about the successful return, whether ball or stick.

Isa had enough sense to get out when she got too cold. At the end of our stay, we just sat on the beach, side by side, and watched the water. Well, I watched the water. She insisted that since I was clearly not doing anything productive, I could scratch the important spots. She laid her head on my shoulder once or twice, buried her head under my chin. We sat that way until I realized she was shivering, poor thing. The wind had picked up and soaking wet was sub-optimum. So we loaded into the car and dried her off. Out of the wind, she was fine.

In Sally’s honor, we stopped for ice cream, then headed home. So close, so close to home and the tire went. I was able to get us to the shoulder, fortunately there was a shoulder, and call for help. I elected long ago to play the girl card and not change tires. Isa loved it, the cars whizzing by at a million miles an hour. Scares the daylights out of me. The only time she noticed anything going on was when the guy jacked the car up. She turned around at the movement but that was it. Never, ever, stopped smiling. She’s much better adjusted than I am but we knew that.

She was definitely sore on Sunday, grateful for some massage, and still very tired having missed nearly all of her Saturday naps. Sunday, while she got caught up on her naps, I went to the tire place and bought a new tire. Evidently the dead tire came off the rim in two pieces. I did a good job on that one!

So there you have it – a near-perfect dog day at the river.