last night erica, mollie and i went for a boat ride. we set out about, i don’t know, maybe 8:00, and it was very lovely out there on the water and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. well, mollie of course would have been happier if we’d brought some treats, but she had a good enough time.
we got back to the house at about nine, and it was dark. luckily kevin has installed many solar lights around the dock, so i was able to dock the boat ok. also luckily it wasn’t windy.
now, the lake level has dropped about three feet. here’s a picture i took of it this morning.
when we got on the boat last night i had to coax mollie down to it, and when we came back in, i got off to tie up.
mollie and erica were still on the boat, and i called mollie.
i shouldn’t have done that. it was a way way way too high jump for any dog, much less a 12 year-old dog.
so, SPLASH, she fell right into the water.
things got kind of jumbled and crazy and erica says she’s not exactly clear on what happened after that, except that there was a lot of screaming.
first, erica jumped into the water while i pulled the rope so the boat wouldn’t slam into the poor frantic doggie.
you might recall that last year, mollie fell in the water when we were across the lake, and erica jumped in and saved her. erica was wearing jeans at the time. she pushed and i pulled on mollie’s harness, and we managed to get her back in the boat that time.
but this time, i also got into the water – luckily, the last person who went swimming didn’t put the ladder back up so i was able to quickly get down. the water was cool and refreshing, but i was focused on my poor dog. mollie had swam to the front of the boat and was scrabbling against the sea wall, which of course was impossible to climb. MOLLIE! MOLLIE! i called to her, and erica swam under the dock with mollie in tow.
i held mollie with one hand, the other hand on the dock, one foot on a rock, the other one on the ladder, and mollie was trembling in fear, plus she kept scratching at me, trying to escape the terror of the water.
“let’s get her over to the rocks,” i said, but erica didn’t think she’d be able to make it. i think she could have, but on the other hand it was dark and mollie was a little crazy.
as were erica and me.
erica thought that together we could carry mollie up the ladder, but there was no way we could both fit on the ladder, plus mollie isn’t exactly light.
CALL KEVIN! i yelled, and so erica scrambled up the ladder and back onto the boat. she called kevin and very politely said “hi, it’s erica, mollie has fallen into the water and can’t get out, and can you please come down and help us?”
and then erica jumped back in the water and once again said she thought we could lift mollie, but that wasn’t happening.
finally, finally, after almost forever, a hand reached down…and it wasn’t kevin, it was garrick! kevin had gone to the basement to turn on the dock light, and i handed mollie to erica, who pushed her up, and garrick lifted her right out of the water.
WHEW. it was a very dramatic and exciting ending to an otherwise peaceful boat ride.
erica refused any dry clothes, and drove home in her wet clothes, wrapped in a towel. hopefully she didn’t get pulled over.
this morning when i went down to take the picture of the boat, the geese weren’t thrilled that i was interfering with their breakfast.
they weren’t so upset, though, that they actually left the yard.
and that the big excitement for the month thus far.
i have many many more photos because i’ve been so errant in posting them, but i have many things to do now. later, sometime later.
ok then,
mrs. h.