I have always laughed and poked fun of some pet owners.  You know the ones I’m talking about.  Those pet owners that pamper them,  give their pets special treats, dress them up like people, paint their toe nails and basically fawn all over them.  Don’t get me wrong, I love our dogs dearly.  We have spent so much money at the vet’s office, that each year our goal is to NOT get the annual  Christmas calendar.  And each year we get a new calendar.  We feed them carrots for treats and I make frozen yogurt pumpkin pops for them as a cold treat.  But I think  we finally became one of “those” pet owners.

Orso, our chocolate lab, a.k.a. water dog, does not particularly like water.  He doesn’t go swimming really.  He might go in up to his chest or swim out and back a few yards when he’s hot, but that’s all he does.  He absolutely abhors the rain.  He will stand under the eave of the house and refuse to go out in the yard to go pee or on walks, he’ll walk next to me under the umbrella, just to not get his head wet.  He’s not interested in retrieving anything on land or in the water.  When we go pheasant hunting, he usually walks at my heals.  Last week we were at our friends’ house for a play day with their two dogs, which entails a walk to the public access boat launch for an afternoon of swimming, tag and a good game of wrestling.  Tied up to the dock was an old aluminum runabout.  No one was around and Orso walked right up to the boat and jumped right in like it was his own.  We had to pull him out a couple of times fearful the owner would show up. 

The rest of the dogs decided on a game of tag, but Orso wasn’t interested.  I turned around looking for him and there he was sitting at the back of the dock wagging his tail waiting patiently for a pontoon boat to come in and tie up to the dock.  He wanted to get on that boat so much.   We talked another friend of ours into taking Orso for a boat ride on his pontoon boat.  Our friend asked if Orso would try to jump in the water and Mitch told not to worry, Orso wouldn’t jump in.  He walked back forth looking at the other boats in the water.  Mitch opened the gate to the front deck and Orso walked out and sat down totally at home afloat on a boat.  That was the best day of his life.