A Good Idea

So we were on our Tour de Iowa. The first few days were spent completely cut off from civilization (read: we had only satellite TV and no Internet service) at a "remote" cabin. This forced some creative thinking on the part of all participants who included myself, Jaden, Dustin, my mom, my dad and Charlie. The first afternoon there we rallied around the proposal of going for a walk.

To set the stage for the rest of this story, please understand that it was quite wet that afternoon. It had been raining, and even when it wasn't raining the humidity level was at approximately 115%. Regardless we were determined to commune with Mother Nature. In this vein I wanted my suburban dog to get the opportunity of a lifetime: a walk without a leash. My husband vehemently said "no." He said it was too wet. I scoffed at him and told him how good Charlie is at the local dog park. I told him I'd been training Charlie for this very moment. I promised to dry him off when we got back. Believe it or not -- I had even brought his puppy towel with decorative paws. It was meant to be. I let the pup off his leash.

Here is the picture I took just after this fateful moment.

And here is a picture fifteen minutes later.

He found a lake. A nasty lake. An algae-infested, seed-pore pregnant, mudbottomed lake.

It wasn't Charlie who had his tail between his legs on the walk back to the cabin. Dustin, my mother and my father sat back and watched me use an entire (travel-sized) bottle of baby shampoo on Chuckles while hosing him down with glacier-cold water. I then had to dry the dog, brush the dog and wash him down some more. It.took.forever. I couldn't ask for help. Pride prevented it. And they wouldn't have helped even if I had asked, because they all thought I needed to learn a lesson.

Here's what I learned: if Charlie is ever going to be respected as a dog who (used to) have a pair, I am going to have to let him commune with nature more often. Just not the kind of nature that has lakes. Or seeds. Or grass. Other than that, consider him officially in training.