It’s truly wonderful to enjoy the lake where Rob’s parents live when it is not a holiday weekend and the crowds are gone. We were there for the week after Memorial Day this year.

I call this one Sunlight Dancing on the Water:

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We took out the neighbor’s paddle boat a few times. Rob would fish, where I would help net, read, or just relax and pedal. A couple of times, though, we opted to bring the pooches. The dogs really like fishing and since Rob likes to just catch and release, he lets each dog sniff and give the fish a quick kiss before throwing them back in. It really is sweet. As much as Benny loved to fish, too, we really couldn’t do this often with him as he would bark the whole time!

We went into a little cove of the lake where a loon resided. As we pedaled in he didn’t move away from us at all. In fact, he came a bit closer to us. At one point, I can’t say he was more than 15 feet away. I was really nervous about this because Shamrock is such a bird dog. Was he going to jump in?!

 

It wasn’t long after that that Shamrock’s urge got the better of him and he did jump into the water.

“Do something!?” I cried. Shamrock had jumped off the paddle boat on Rob’s side and was swimming towards the loon.I had noticed how long and sharp the loon’s beak was after a good amount of time watching him up close. I could just imagine a sweet little loon pecking Sham’s eyeballs out.

“What do you want me to do?” Rob exclaimed back. I don’t know what I expected. For him to dive in? He had a fishing pole in his hand, equipped with a hook. We were seated low in the paddle boat. Sophie was also on board. The image in my head was a movie-made dive. But if he were to do that, it wouldn’t be quite as pretty!

“Come here Sham,” Rob said calmly. I probably rolled my eyes. Sham never listened when he was on the hunt. It’s why we always keep him on a leash unless he is the confines of our fenced-in-yard. If he were to chase something anywhere else, he’d never come back.

The loon did not move. He was not intimidated by dog paddling noisily his way.

But Rob kept repeating himself calmly.

About halfway to the loon, Sham turned around and swam back. I have no idea why! At Rob’s request? Did he get halfway there and then wonder what he was actually going to do? Was it that he realized he could not touch the bottom like he can when he swims near the shore? Was he getting tired? But for whatever reason, we are grateful our wet Bugaboo returned to us unharmed.

It’s always a happy day at the lake, even on land when Rob likes play “chase the bobber”. (There is no hook on the line for this game, of course!)

Ahhh… summer!

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Cheers~
Carrie