Relaxing evening at the park

Hubs and I had a busy, crazy week. Oh wait. That’s every week.

But on Friday night, we were both exhausted and needed a break. So we went for a family walk at a nearby park. It’s a beautiful park with ponds and trees. There are tennis courts and playgrounds and walking trails. It was a perfect night for a relaxing, uneventful, calm walk together.

As has become our habit, we loaded Ransom up with his backpack and 5-pound dumbbells on each side to make him work a little hard, and hopefully burn a little more energy. He loves to watch every single squirrel with extreme interest just in case I let him loose to chase them – which I never do. But to the ducks, he shows little-to-no interest. If he didn’t look so much like a Labrador, you’d never know he was.

Towards the end of our walk, it had gotten dark and we were walking next to one of the ponds. The pups needed a drink so I let him go to the edge of the pond. As he leans down to the water, the dumbbells shift in his pack, making him heavier towards the front. He loses his balance and slips in. It wasn’t too bad, though, because his head stayed above the water and I think he could touch. Immediately, he gets out.

Great, we think. Water is something we usually have to force him in anyways so he is probably scarred and will never venture towards water again.

But…his memory is very short.

I again tried to get him interested in the ducks as we walked toward our car. Maybe it was the surge of energy from the quick dip in the pond. Maybe his Labrador instincts kicked in. Whatever the reason, this time he was interested in the ducks and he took off towards them, and another pond.

The ducks, of course, got into the pond and swam away as we approached. Their rush to the water made him more interested and he kept going. And then, it was like he remembered he was thirsty. We reached the water’s edge and it was déjà vu. He bent down to get a drink. The dumbbells shifted. The weight made him lose his balance. In he goes.

This time, he went head-first and all of him sank below the dark water. When he emerged, he is in panic-mode because this water-dog doesn’t remember that he can swim really well. Plus, we have him loaded down with 10 extra pounds, so he can’t even get his front legs up and out of the water. By this time, Hubs is there to assist and Ransom has gotten us all wet from the splashing and the shaking.

We had a good laugh over it and it was actually a nice way to get our minds off of everything else. And it worked out well for Ransom. He got a bath when we got home!