Lucy and I just returned from a most beautiful (and slightly freaky) experience.
We meandered together through the quiet back roads, cutting through the forest on rustic paths and popped out onto a quiet residential road which leads to a small, bay no bigger than a suburban backyard. This is a special place where we've seen orcas and sea lions up close.
Today, Lucy was pulling on her leash --which she normally doesn't do.
"Lucy, sweetie, what's up? What's down there that you want to go see so badly?"
Once we reached the ocean, I let her off leash and she ran into the small surf. She doesn't swim, she just hangs out near shore. But today, she started to swim further out.
I'm not so sure about this. I started to think about what I'd do if she kept going? Would she come back if I called her?
Just then, a seal popped his head up. I love seeing seals!! But not when they are so close to my dog. Lucy's a black labrador, and when she's wet, she looks like a seal too. I'm not so sure about this...and then the seal disappeared. Lucy stopped and started to swim back to me. Phew.
Then the seal popped up again. Closer. Only ten feet away from Lucy. My heart raced faster. Was this okay? The seal disappeared.
I called Lucy and she started to swim towards me. And my heart reduced its speed. Then when Lucy was about twelve feet from shore, the seal popped up, right beside her. They looked like twins!!
I checked my pockets to make sure I really didn't have my camera. Nope. I've seen YouTube videos like these, dogs swimming with dolphins, dogs swimming with seals, but to see it in person was .... stunning.
My heart is still beating fast just typing this as I remember it all!
Lucy and the seal swam together for only about a minute and then it was over. Lucy swam towards shore and ran right towards me ... and got a HUGE reward for coming as she did.
And then I took one last look at the seal as it turned to swim away. He dove into the water and his rear fin flipped up out of the water and it looked like there was something stuck to it. An ID tag?? A tracking tag of some sort??
I squinted my eyes, stepped a few feet closer and saw writing on it... and it read: april fools!!
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© 2015 Michelle Sevigny. DOGSAFE Canine First Aid. www.dogsafe.ca. Text may be shared with full copyright intact.
Photo by Marieke
