A Tulip Story

Here's a little story about Tulip (who likes to swim and loves sticks!)

Toby has, once again, created a path through the lily pads for us to swim out to the raft. He meticulously marked this path every three feet or so with pieces of wood tied to string somehow anchored on the bottom. It's been a delight to weave our way around the lilies following the wooden markers to the raft.

Last week in the middle of a very hot day we hopped in the lake for a cooling swim. Tulip usually sits on the dock and barks at us as we get further and further away. This day she jumped in and followed us.

She didn't know that she could follow the markers, but two-thirds of the way to the raft she encountered one. Without a moment's hesitation, she grabbed the piece of wood in her mouth and started swimming back to shore. She's a fast swimmer, but I was close by and tried to wrestle that piece of wood out of her mouth. She wouldn't give it up--she had an iron grip on it. I swam beside her. When she started to slow down and sink a little I got worried and tried to hold her up by the fur on her back, saying "We're almost there, Tulip--hang on!!" She's not so young anymore--maybe she just can't take these long swims. But we got back to shore, and when I pulled the wood and the string up, there on the end

was this heavy brick.

Tulip had lugged it all back--no wonder she had trouble!

She slept most of the rest of the day.