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Nostalgia on a Shore Line

It seemed like a pretty hopeless place to enjoy water sports: a New Mexico state park. (Heron Lake.) The lake looked like somebody pulled the cork out of the bottom. And yet, the 6 or 8 paddlers, sailors, and fishermen seemed to be enjoying themselves.


I personally never had great success with water sports, despite a fair bit of effort. But the two sailboaters here were putting the New Mexican wind to good use.  Overnight they camped right down by the water, in their small rigs. Even after a night of relative aeolian quiescence, the waves were still making a pleasant music against the shoreline at sunrise.

Isn't that great!? State park bureaucrats actually allow people the freedom to have fun, here. Don't ask me how they reconcile such behavior with Patriotism and America's security needs. 

And speaking of fun. The next morning Kurumi Ted took Chaco, the Labrador retriever, and my kelpie, Coffee Girl, down to a stream that actually had flowing water in it. The lab gave his imitation of a Cabela's catalog cover boy...



But why wasn't his comfortable enthusiasm with the water rubbing off on my herding dog? Granted, she had never been in deep water before. Finally my friend E, Chaco's mommie, coaxed my dog out a little deeper.

Look Pops! My belly is wet, so it counts as "Swimming."

Comments

Tesaje said…
There is nothing as silly as a poodle in water. We learned last year that my sister's standard poodle can't swim despite loving to sit in water. My collie loves nothing better than fetching in water. She just runs into it and continues to run in the water. Didn't know Kelpies didn't like the water but maybe it is just inexperience. The poodle wouldn't move his hind legs and just slapped at the water with his front legs.
My guess is that a dog that's a newbie to water needs to see their human in the water to really get inspired.
Tesaje said…
Not so with my collie. Her incentive was a thrown stick. Her first time was in an irrigation ditch and the current rolled her completely over. Took her about 10 false starts but she was determined to conquer her fear and get it right. Ever since, it's her favorite thing and she's a great swimmer. Fast too. I never got in the water with her. Getting in the water with my sister's poodle didn't work at all.