November 20, 2010: Oreo Goes for a Swim

For breakfast, Emily and I went over to Donuts, Tacos and Kolaches and picked up breakfast for everyone.  They have a pretty good selection of breakfast pastries there and are so conveniently close.  We put in a massive breakfast order.  The guy just couldn’t believe it as we just kept ordering and ordering.

I ended up having to work quite a bit today.  I had just a few projects on my plate but there were some issues at the office that quickly turned into a big deal and I ended up working quite extensively.

Once I was done working we were able to go over to Joe and Britt’s house for our early Thanksgiving dinner midafternoon.

Oreo had a bit of an adventure.  He went out into the backyard to explore.  I went with him knowing that it was not safe.  He fought my direction and went directly into the swimming pool.  Not a big deal as I had a hold of him and he only put in two feet down onto the first step and went enough to get his nose wet.  A bit of a scare for him not nothing more.

I had to work really hard to keep him from going into the pool – no matter how I tried to direct him he would push straight towards the water.  Why this blind dog can’t learn to trust my directions I have no idea.

While trying to get him to go into the grass over at the far side of the pool (the backyard is dominated by the pool which takes up about fifty percent of the available space there) Garrett dashed out of the back door of the house.  I turned to watch him knowing that he would dart for the pool and in the split second that I turned around Oreo turned ninety degrees and ran full speed into the deep end of the pool exactly as I had anticipated.  I had to run for Garrett but a half second later Francesca was out the door chasing him and I turned and went for Oreo who was already two feet down and sinking quickly.  Fortunately he had his harness on and I was able to reach him by dropping to the concrete and just going half into the water – had I needed to dive in after him it would have taken a lot of time for me to get him back up to the side of the pool.  As it was I was able to drag him out in a matter of seconds.  He was still very cold and scare, though.

Oreo was feeling fine once he dried out and warmed up.  Hopefully he will remember and try to avoid pools when I attempted to steer him away in the future.

Liesl wanted to hang out outside quite a bit tonight, which was surprising.  She played with Garrett by the pool for a while but after Garrett went inside she insisted that I hold her and just walk around with her outside for a long time.  She is getting to the age where she is scared of many things.  Noises from the next street over or the next door neighbour’s squeaky back door would scare her.  If she was playing she would run to me and ask to be held for a while.

We probably spent an hour or two just walking around outside in the dark.  We would talk, this is the first that Liesl is really seeming to understand adult-like conversation even though she can only participate a little bit, and walk around the yard.  She wanted to look all over in the nooks and crannies of the yard but was afraid to walk around on her own.

At one point, Liesl believed that an owl had been hurt and needed our help.  She made me go all over the place looking for it.  On the ground, in a tree, over by the fence.  I’m not sure what she saw or imagined but it was very strange.  She really seemed convinced that there was an owl in need of assistance.

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