Day 17

Sadly, my camera has officially kicked the bucket. So I'm going to ask you to mentally photoshop the previous post's picture of Clover in his life jacket with this one from last March:

I will be honest, the actual result of taking Clover swimming was hysterical.

First, I imagined at 9:30 on a Saturday morning after it had down poured, I would be alone on the beach. Yeah, not so much, actually. There were several families there, along with a tent that was clearly set up for a wedding later in the day. Well, fine. Dogs are ok on the beach, and mine had a legit reason to be sporting a bright yellow PFD.

So I carried him out over the sand, got in just over knee deep, and put Clover down. Clover has gone swimming before, but I'm sure it's been at least two years.

He didn't quite remember.

First, he sort of splayed all four legs like a falling cat and sort of bobbed in the tide. I took the handle on the back of the PFD and started backing up, at which point he started frantically paddling with his front legs, leaving his hind legs sticking straight out behind him. I glanced behind me to make sure I wasn't walking into anything, then looked back and he was still swimming oddly. It wasn't until I picked him up I noticed I hadn't tightened the front chest strap enough, and he'd managed to thread on of his legs into it. As I went to fix it, he actually then put his other front leg into it, and sat pretty contentedly, just floating, his front feet resting on the chest strap of the life jacket. He was very proud of himself. That is, until the next ripple of a wave passed through and he nearly capsized. So I took him back to shore, tightened up his life jacket, and headed back into the water.

This time, I lead him gently by the handle and by his chin, and he got it down. If they flail, it's bad, but a nice, even, determined swim is a very good thing, as it's a full range of motion with absolutely no press/stress on the joint. So I sort of based up and down the shore (remember, I'm only in a bit over my knees) where Clover would either swim or just barely touch bottom and walk. Walking like this is also good for the same reasons, there is a lot less stress on the joint; many rehab facilities use swimming and water treadmills.

Anyway, I was at the beach for perhaps half an hour and Clover swam perhaps 10 or 15 minutes all together.

He slept so hard when we got home he was dreaming and whining on the sofa. I had to wake him up to take him outside, and he came back in and passed out. I had to wake him up to feed him dinner! Amazing. And even today, he's still pretty tired. I love it. This is exactly what we both needed.

I am currently thinking he can swim once a week for a few more weeks, until our six week follow up with the surgeon, and go from there. Really, by mid-September it will likely be too cold anymore, but we should have a pretty good start by then.