Friday, February 4, 2011

What I wouldn't do...

Our pooch is in love with her ball. Her Chuck-It ball, to be specific (see above). The only problem with these balls is that they are expensive (something like $6 a ball), so we try really hard not to lose them. Why do I spend money on these balls? Because I heard somewhere that tennis balls prematurely grind down your dog's teeth. Tell a pet owner something like that, and they won't mind spending money on the good stuff. I'm a sucker. But I'm also frugal. So, like I was saying, we try hard not to lose these balls.

We've been on a good streak for the past six or seven months - yes! the same ball!! Incredible, I know! All good things must come to an end, though. The girls next door, who are super sweet, managed to misplace our pup's sacred ball yesterday. It may not be lost for good, but we needed to bring in the backup ball for today's play sessions. There's only one problem with the backup ball: it doesn't float like the other one; and problem numero deux: we have two big ponds in our yard; oh, and did I mention we only have one backup ball?

All was going fine on our play session today until our pup decided to take a drink out of the middle of one swampy pond, and to take a drink means dropping the ball, and then... well, I'm sure you can guess that we had a sinker. Two balls lost in less than 24 hours?! In my mind - or no actually, quite out loud, I said, "This isn't happening." So, in the first wee days of February, I peeled off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants and waded into the mucky, swampy, dead-leaf infested chilly waters of this pond and searched for the sole remaining ball. Just before my feet lost their feeling, they crested upon something round and squishy at the bottom, and voila! ball retrieved. Whew! That was a close one.

What I wouldn't do for that puppy... What I also need to do is get a few more floating backup balls because swamp swimmin' doesn't become my regular hobby until at least June.

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