Bailey's First Swimming Lesson

I just got back from the park with the pup. He wasn't too keen on the idea of going in the first place (evidenced by the fact that he tried to walk between my feet the whole way there and cowered at the sight of every car that went by).

So we got there, and we were sitting on the broken remains of a dam in the middle of the creek. He was kind of afraid of...well, really everything. He's kind of a wimp.

To attempt to give an accurate picture of this, the two sides of the dam are still standing on each side of the creek, but the middle portion of it has fallen out. Most of it has washed downstream, but there's a thick slab of it laying on its side in the middle of the creek above a small waterfall-esque drop off. We were sitting on said slab of dam.

Somewhere during our visit, I got the bright idea to climb up the other side of the dam. Bailey couldn't come, but I didn't think he could get into too much trouble if I just left him there. (Mistake.) He panicked and tried to climb up too, but landed himself butt-first in a pool of shallow water.

I heard the splash, glanced down, and saw the expression on my poor puppy's face. And let me tell you, if dogs could speak, he would have just said, "Well, shit."

I felt bad for the little wimp so I climbed back down. Being the over-excitable puppy he is, he got very...erm, excited, and started running around on this hunk of cement in the middle of the creek. When I noticed that he was standing next to the edge, and a split second after I thought to myself, "He's gonna fall," his back legs slipped.

It wasn't a quick fall either, since he tried to save himself with his front paws. Ever so slowly, his front feet slid backwards towards the ledge and I watched my little puppy topple backwards into deeper water. (Essentially, he fell about a foot into water that's three feet deep.)

And because he's the genius he is, he didn't have the sense to just swim to the side of the creek and climb out onto the bank. Nope, the silly dog just kept trying to climb up the three foot-high cliff that he fell off of.

At that point, I was laughing so hard I could barely breath (and poor Bailey was whining and yelping as he swam around in pitiful circles), but I jumped in anyways to save the little half-wit.

After I lifted him out of the water, I couldn't climb back out right away because my giggling fit had rendered me temporarily unable to climb. Unfortunately, Bailey decided it would be a good idea to stand with his front paws on my shoulder, thereby soaking the only remaining part of me still dry.

This is the beginning of October, mind you, so it's not exactly warm outside.

Still, I eventually climbed out, and figured that was enough excitement for one day. We walked the two miles home, leaving behind a Hansel-and-Gretel-ish trail of drips. I laughed most of the way--Bailey whined, go figure.

He is currently sleeping after that stressful ordeal. (I'm still laughing.)