Lucky

Saturday morning turned out to be quite eventful. When I got up, Husband said, "put on your shoes and grab your coat, we're going to take Buddy for a walk." I loved the idea, as it was a beautiful morning, and Husband rarely wants to take walks with me. Brandon decided he wanted to go too, and Buddy was SO excited. With all of the subzero weather lately he hasn't been walked like he should. So we all headed out and were having a perfectly lovely time in the near 40-degree weather.

Toward the tail end of our walk, I turned to head toward home, but Husband led us down to a little wetland/marsh area. He took Buddy onto the ice, and then walked out and we had Buddy run between us. I stayed near the shore; I never have gotten my head fully around the whole lake ice thing (don't get me started on Minnesota's favorite winter pastime, ice fishing). Brandon stayed with me for awhile, then decided to venture the other way and have Buddy run to him. This progressed for a while, all of us laughing. Brandon started to head in, and all of the sudden Buddy meandered off the other way, and then suddenly dropped from my sight. He had fallen in an unseen spot of open water.

Oh, the calamity that ensued. To our knowledge Buddy had never been in the water before. Brandon was the closest one to him, and I kept trying to tell him to lay down on the ice, but he wasn't sure what to do. Instead of laying down he was kneeling and Buddy was flailing around in the water. Tears came, I couldn't help it. I was worried about both of them, even though I knew the water wasn't very deep. Husband sprinted over and took control of the situation, telling Brandon to lay down on his belly and pull Buddy up, and telling me to stay where I was, because I kept wanting to walk toward them. Buddy kept trying to swim toward me rather than Brandon, but finally he got close enough Brandon could grab his collar and pull him up. It was only about a 30-second ordeal, but it felt like forever. Buddy's swimming (or at least treading water) instincts kicked in, and Brandon and Husband did a great job. I was a blubbering idiot. Once the tears start these days, it's hard to make them stop.

Needless to say, I was the only one visibly shaken by the ordeal. Husband and Brandon were concerned but relatively unaffected, and Buddy acted like he was having the time of his life. When we got home Husband administerd Buddy's first home bath, as he stunk to high heaven of swamp muck (a smell reminiscent of my unfortunate kayaking incident a couple of summers ago). After a few barks at the hair dryer, he did let us blow dry him, but it took an hour and all three of us to get him fully cleaned up. All in all, no worse for the wear, but we learned a valuable lesson...and we all definitely had to work a nap in that day!