Dad's Amazing Rescue

(Call us crazy, obsessed or weird, but we love our dogs. So when references are made to “dad” or “mom”, it’s usually about the dogs.)

The story begins with a typical hot day in June…yesterday to be exact.  After Brent and I spend the afternoon cleaning and installing our new doggie door (which the boys absolutely love by the way), we loaded up in the car and headed to one of my favorite places ever.  About 10 miles out of town, in the middle of no where, there is a canal that runs along the side of the road.  When the weather started getting warm, we would take the boys there and let them play in the frozen water, so they know this area well.  Well, since the summer has hit, and the snow has been melting at such a rapid pace, the stream and canals are running at full capacity. So to Tanks surprise, the water was a little deeper than he remembered. Zip has this undying love for water. As I have mentioned before, he will find water wherever it is; a puddle, a freshly watered garden (Ug!!), sprinklers (in anyones yard), or a hose. The man loves water.  So this deep canal was especially fun. Not so much for Tank.

We have this thing, as mean as it may seem, where Brent throws tank in the middle of whatever body of water we are playing in, because Tank won’t voluntarily get soaked.  He plays on the sidelines and gets up to his belly, but he cries and whines every time Zip gets farther than him, so we help him out a little bit. On this particular occasion, the waters where high, the current was slightly moving, and the weather was warm…Tank was going swimming! Sure enough, dad throws him in, Tank goes under….Tank doesn’t come up…eventually this little head pops up and he is just paddling for all he’s worth, but yet he is not going anywhere.  What kind of dog doesn’t know how to swim?! …This dog…whenever Tank would paddle, his butt would sink straight down and his front paws would just slap the water at two hundred miles per hour. It was sad and hilarious at the same time.  Of course, I panicked, yelling at Brent to jump in a save him…so there goes Brent. He strips down to his undies, jumps in, and saves the day. Tank sure looked a little relived and angry, confused with the fact that his rescuer was also the same man who put him in this situation in the first place. Come to find out, Tank loves swimming when you hold up his hind-end for him!

Which brings me to this point: Brent is in his underwear at 7:30 at night, in the middle of a canal playing with the dogs. So of course this turns into a family event… as cold as it might have seemed, I got in the water too.  The boys loved having family time in the water with them! It’s normally just the boys, but this time all of us got muddy, wet, and cold.  And still they had to ride in the back of the truck while we drove home with the heater. Aw, the joys of being human.  

Can ya tell I was cold?! We ended up staying in for over a hour anyway!