in Which Daisy Goes Swimming

First, thanks for the good wishes for Lucy-Fur - she's doing well, and so far, we are all surviving!  Mom is a HUGE fan of Lucy-Fur's suit (as are the rest of us who don't have to deal with being attacked by a crazed puppy in a lamp shade!).

In an attempt to keep Daisy from bouncing off the walls (or attackling me!) while Lucy-Fur recovers from her Big Girl surgicals, Mom has been doing different things with Daisy to wear her out.  Yesterday, Mom took Daisy to The Dog Dive, an indoor swimming pool for dogs (as you might guess from the name) for her first swimming lesson.

Mom had been in the place a couple of times before, but never with a doggie before.  Anyway, from what Daisy said to me later and what Mom said, Daisy had a good time, and Mom was very impressed with the whole process the owner had getting Daisy comfortable with her surroundings and then getting her interested in the water, and then finally getting her into the pool, and making sure she was comfortable before she started swimming.

Of course, Mom took a bunch of photos of the whole thing.

"Hi Mom. I don't know what we are doing here, but I'm excited!"

"Uh, Mom? This is sort of crazy. I'm on an elevated platform and there is a bunch of water right there. I'm not so sure about this...."

"Oh? There are toys in this big pool of water? Hmm.  This might not be so terrible..."

"Yeah, probably a good call to lower me into the water..."

Once Daisy got comfortable in the water and with Angela, she was floated to the end of the pool.

"Hi Mom! Lookit me! I'm totally not freaking out here!"

Once Daisy got used to floating around a bit, she did her first assisted swim (assisted because Angela didn't want to let go of her life jacket and have her get totally freaked out).  The first attempt involved a bunch of splashing as Daisy realized that her feet couldn't touch the bottom of the pool...

"Eeeieee!!!"

"Eeeieee!"

But, she quickly got the hang of the whole swimming thing, and the amount of splashing diminished rapidly.

Much less splashing as she figured out that she was a natural at the doggie paddle!

Angela still kept a hand on her, just in case.

"I'm good - I'm getting the hand of this whole thing!"

"Ooooh!  A tennis ball!!!"

"No, seriously. I'm getting this whole swimming thing!"

"Lookit me! I'm flying solo! With a frisbee!"

"Wheee! This is fun!"

"Hi, nice Angela lady!"

"I'm a master of this whole doggie paddle thing!"

"Yep, I can swim for squeaky toys!"

"Okay, this was pretty seriously awesome! I'm a tired and happy girl now!"

The swimming adventure was such a success (and once Daisy got the post-swim endorphins out of her system by doing a few zoomies around the yard, she conked out!) that Mom and Daisy are going to go back to the pool on Friday.  Mom thought the whole thing was such a good experience that I'll be going for swimming lessons, too.  (Depending on when my eye surgicals are, I might have to wait until after that is done - we'll see.)  Apparently swimming is good for more venerable doggies such as myself, as it is good exercise and doesn't put any stress on my joints. Angela is also certified in canine massage therapy, so if I'm lucky, I might get a little massage with my swimming, too!

While Daisy was conked out after swimming, Lucy-Fur is clearly starting to feel better, and the youngsters are engaging in some unauthorized bitey-face (although they aren't truly wrestling yet, so I suppose it's okay - they are definitely into showing off their pearly whites!).

As for me, I am enjoying having Mom around to give me scratchies and snooter kisses while the kids are being nutty kids.

Stay tuned for more posts!

*kissey face*
-Saint Fiona the Patient, Crazy Daisy, and Lucy-Fur