Our Ladies of the Lake

Over the holiday weekend, my mom, the kids and I took a little drive up to my sister's new lake cabin for the day. The kids seemed to enjoy being there, especially Little Blue Eyes, and I especially enjoyed that I had him in a smaller area for awhile where I could pretty much have a visual on him from anywhere in the room.

It was mostly business as usual for me... Cutting snacks and lunch into a million little pieces, wiping various body parts, following Little Blue Eyes around, entertaining Miss Peaches with random bits and baubles.

I did, however, find a little something else to tickle my fancy while we were there. It was a one-year-old and a two-year-old, but of a different variety than my bunch.

Meet my nephews' two Labrador Retrievers, Dolly and Sage...

"Hi girls. Would you like to run and leap off the dock after your ball so that I can get some mid-air pictures of you and practice my action photography skills?"

"Hleh, hleh, hleh, hleh, hleh..." (That's how you spell out the sound of dog panting, just in case you didn't know.) "Um... YES. We would LOVE to do that."

When someone says, "Jump," these girls respond with, "How high?"

Dolly was sort of the superstar of the two (sorry, Sage... you did good too). She had no qualms about flying across the dock and leaping into the air at full speed without hesitation... 

Gosh darned if she wasn't going to do her best to land right on top of that ball.

Here's an action sequence... 

Wait for it...

Wait for it.

Here she comes... 

Leap!

(Cringe) There's something unnatural about that whole bodily contortion. Good thing she's young and resilient. If I did that I would feel like I'd just given birth in a gunny sack.

I don't know what that means. But I know that it conveys that pain I envision in my head. 

 

Splash! 

"Hey, Dolly, that was great. I got some really great shots!"

 "Yeah, yeah. Good for you. I've got more balls to fetch."

She's all business, that one.

Sage was in on the action too, but in a slighly less graceful fashion...

 

I don't care who ya' are... That's funny.

 It's o.k., girl. You still did good, and you're still the best dog a boy could ever want. Some of us get by a little more on our character and a little less on our gracefulness.

My sister and I decided to take the paddleboat out on the lake so that we could get some shots head on...

 

 

 

As if all that weren't enough, she's also a tennis pro...

Now she's just showing off.

In closing and on a slightly different note, all I'm going to say is that if you take a farm kid to the lake, he maybe might go swimming in his t-shirt and Wranglers because he didn't bring his swimming trunks with. And then he may just go swimming in only his Wranglers and lose the t-shirt. And eventually he may lose the Wranglers and go swimming in his underwear.

Maybe. Maybe that might happen.

 

p.s. If you still haven't seen enough diving dog pictures, there's one more here. 

Spring Break

He's on spring break this week, just like many of you all over the country. However, unlike most of you all over the country, he's NOT happy about it.

  

He's sullen. He's pouting. He's sad.

Burley usually goes to work with my husband at the resort most days of the week, and he loves it. Every morning when Mr. Blue Eyes is getting ready to go, Burley trots along behind him, making sure that he doesn't forget to take him along.

At the resort, in such a beautiful mountain valley, Burley is completely at home. He trots around, stalks squirrels, begs for bacon outside the restaurant kitchen door, and takes naps in the gift shop. He quite literally basks in the glow of the sunshine and beauty.

Sometimes he gets charged by the occasional moose or runs a coyote out of the meadow to steal its carcass for his own.

But that's really only on occasion. Most days, it's the lap of luxury, as far as he's concerned.

This week, because it IS spring break, we decided that he had better stay home with me. Even though he's good with guests and other dogs, when there's that many people mulling around, we'd just rather not take the risk of some random incident.

Not that he ever bites people or anything, but sometimes he gets excited with all the activity, and his deep, ominous bark alone is enough to scare some dog-wary yahoo into suing us for heart palpitations or some such other nonsense.

So he's banished to the nether regions of our homestead for the week, and let me tell you, watching him mope around is down right depressing.

The thing is, I think he's bummed about not getting to go to work, but I also think there's something else bringing him down. Kind of like when I have some quiet moments and start to reflect on the loss of my Dad, I think that Burley starts to think about her...

He remembers her hairless facial wrinkles and primordial claws, and how she used to slobber all over him and how they'd race around the yard together, and his whole outlook just hits a concrete wall and everything gets a little out of focus.

Don't worry, Lola didn't die. A couple months ago, we had some church friends who lost their dog unexpectedly. We always talked about our dogs together, and whenever we would, I always thought about how much they would love Lola if they ever met her.

One day while driving home from church a couple weeks after their dog's death, it struck me how much I knew they really would love her, and how much she would love living with them. We loved her so much and the thought of relegating her to someone else had never crossed my mind until that moment. However, I guess I just knew that giving her to them would be such an amazing blessing for all parties involved, which is why I brought it up to Mr. Blue Eyes and we began to consider it.

We knew that they were home a lot and how much they just loved and babied their dogs. We also knew that Lola really wanted to be devoted to someone 24/7, and that with Mr. Blue Eyes working and me so busy all the time with kids and house and who-knows-what-else, we weren't giving her as much time as she wanted.

You know how some dogs just really want to be someone's best friend, their only one, their devoted companion? That was Lola.

We knew that these people had the time and love to give that to her.

So, I think you can guess the rest of the story. She now lives with them, so happy and as beloved as she really wanted to be. She also has two little dog companions that she thoroughly enjoys and loves. She's with them all the time and they all just love on her and we know it couldn't be a better situation for her.

On the flip-side, we just can't help but miss her, and I know that Burles misses her especially. Like the rest of us, when he goes to work and keeps his mind occupied it doesn't hurt so much. But on days like today, when he has a little time to recall his sweet, somewhat hairless love, it sure does get him down.

 Sorry, bud. We'll try to make it up to you. In the meantime, there's still someone who'll snuggle with you...