Feb 10 - tale (or is that tail ?) of two dogs

This time I wore my ski jacket.  The wind was about 25mph from the west and the temperature was in the 40's.  Cold !

The tide was pretty high and when I got to the east side of the sandbar, there was no dry land.  I went around to the west side, which takes some time, and I was still out of luck.  The edges of the sandbar are higher than the center and the edges were still underwater.  I proceeded towards what's known as "disappearing island" which of course is just another sandbar, but the waves were so big (about 2') that we were getting soaked.  Neither Nico nor Cassie liked getting a facefull of cold salty spray !

So ... I turned back -- this is all putt, putt, putting, you understand, because we're still in the manatee zone, so it's taken 45 minutes or so.  Getting back to the east side of the sandbar, the edge was a couple of inches out of the water (tide was going out) so I pulled in, thinking that Cassie would be ok but Nico would need some coaxing to run around in 3-4 inches of water to the center of the sandbar which is the same height as the edge.  Nope.  The two dogs jumped right out and ran through the water and did their normal crazy stuff on the growing patch of dry land.  I got the anchor positioned, took of my shoes, rolled up my jeans and joined them. 

When they were getting played out (not really, I was getting cold), I got them back into the boat and we headed home.  In the meantime, the tide had dropped enough that my sling wasn't low enough for the boat so I edged in and clambered up, lowering the sling.  Nico jumped up to the dock and ran to the house.  I called him and he came back and then ran to the house again.  I got the boat onto the sling and lifted it a few inches, knowing that the tide was dropping and it wasn't going anywhere.  Getting Cassie out of the boat, I went up to the house -- this all takes place within a couple of minutes.

I called to Nico -- nada.  I circled the house calling Nico, nada.  Now getting worried, I went around the surrounding properties calling him, nada. Now very worried, I got my cell phone from the boat and called Sandy who immediately said that I'd lost Nico - what ?  How did you know ?  Well, apparently someone had him at 7th and Live Oak, which is about 4 blocks away and had called Doris's cell number on his tag.  Nico, apparently, going up to the house and finding Doris not there (how could he know ?) had run off searching for her.

Whew !!!  DOUBLE WHEW !!  Losing a dog is bad; losing someone else's dog is very bad.  Had it even occurred to me that he might run off, I'd have put the leash on him.

Sandy and Doris had been on the way back home from lunch and were almost at Nico's location when I called so they picked him up and came home.  We guessed that he'd seen Doris packing suitcases and gotten really anxious ... ??

Doris headed out around 4:15 and we heard from her later than she'd gotten to the airport and all was well.    By now she'll be in the snow.

We left at 5:45 for Cassie's (my) training.  Cassie did well, not a star student but coming along.  Everybody loves a puppy.

Back to the SYC for dinner, we found that the kitchen had already closed down for lack of activity that evening.  Rats.  Oh well, we had a glass of wine and talked to Barbara and Gerry, neighbors, who were there.  There was a lot of talk about hedges and fences, considering the fence that's just gone up between us and Chet & Jean.

Back home, we snacked ... it was well after 9pm and I was done, or rather, finished.

Onward !