Swimming/Not swimming

Well, some minor bad news today. Mandi and I were supposed to go to Galveston for the weekend so we could hang out at the beach and I could meet her family. Unfortunately, her dad has been sick lately and had to go into the hospital for tests yesterday. He still wanted us to come down, but Mandi has decided to go down by herself, which I totally understand. I know she'd feel weird taking me out around town and entertaining me while her dad is sick, and if they happen to get bad news about his health this weekend I know I would feel very awkward being there. I just hope that her dad's health ends up being okay. That's the important thing. And hopefully we'll get to make a trip down there sometime later this summer.
I'm a little disappointed, but I don't mind not going after all. Now I can save a little bit of money this weekend instead of blowing it all on food and alcohol at the beach. Plus it was going to be kind of a hassle coming home on Sunday night and leaving again on Monday morning. Now I have the weekend to clean and pack and all that good stuff. So yeah, it's okay.

And my day was still awesome today because...Cohen learned to enjoy swimming!! I've been determined to get him used to the river. I love hanging out at the river, and it would just be so much more fun if the dog would come and swim with me. Well, Chelsea and I had taken our dogs down to the San Marcos River a few times. Morty the Dark Lord (Morty is in fact short for Voldemort and I love referring to him as "The Dark Lord") ended up loving the river, but Cohen wasn't a fan. On Easter we got him to swim a little bit but he'd only get in by force and he wasn't digging it AT ALL. Plus the river here in town isn't the best place for a little dog like Cohen to swim because there's only one tiny portion of the river where you can actually wade in gradually, and that area is always full of other dogs and screaming children. Not exactly relaxing.
So last week I bought him a life vest, thinking that maybe he'd like swimming better if he could be a little more weightless. Bassets are not made for swimming. They're very heavy-boned and have very short legs, so they basically sink like stones. They CAN swim on their own (all dogs can swim) but definitely not very long or very far. So today Chelsea came down for the afternoon. We put Cohen in his life vest and went out to Five Mile Dam, a park on the Blanco River that's only about four miles from my apartment. I somehow didn't know that this park existed until a couple of days ago, but I'm so, SO glad someone at the dog park told me about it. It's perfect. The Five Mile Dam park itself is big and grassy with picnic tables and all that good stuff. Lots of people hang out up there. But if you go down below the dam there's a quiet area where the water flows really gently and is shallow enough to wade right into at most parts. This is where people take their dogs, so that's where Chels and I took Cohen. Then we tempted him with pieces of hot dog until he waded out into the river. Before long he was paddling around in his little life vest!!
I love my hound dog like crazy, but I don't think I've ever loved Cohen more than I did when he was paddling around in the river today. He looked so cute, I almost couldn't stand it. And the best part is, by the end of the day I think he really, truly liked it. At first I could tell he was just in the water to make me happy (and to get hot dogs pieces) but by the end of the day he was actually wading through some of the shallow parts of the river without any coaxing. And then once we'd had enough of swimming we took his life vest off and we walked up the river a little ways to check out more of the park. Cohen bounded along beside us (off leash and behaving really well, I might add!) and then took it upon himself to wade out into the water several more times. So he's not afraid anymore! I still think he prefers wading to actual swimming, but I'm just so happy that he'll willingly get into the water now.
Plus I'm really glad we discovered Five Mile Dam. It's much better than the City Park here in San Marcos, which is where I'd always been swimming in the past. The water feels great, it's quieter, and it's just prettier overall. Wild flowers everywhere, clear water, lots of shade...I'm thinking I'll head out that way much more often this summer.
These links will take you to pictures of my swimming hound dog!