Splash dogs!

I LOVE dogs! Actually, let me rephrase that... I love most dogs... practically any dog larger than a house cat is considered a friend of mine. I really can't stand those scrawny little ankle biting pooches; for one, they bark too much AND I think it's pathetic how people spend wads of cash of clothes to dress their pups like kids!  I'll keep my cash to spend on clothes for my REAL children. Now returning to my initial statement about how I LOVE dogs, if I had a backyard WITH grass and a husband who would agree to let me have a dog, I'd adopt a pup from the pound this afternoon! That having been said, truth of the matter is that I don't have grass in my backyard (just yet), but only weeds that are practically taller than I am and my husband hasn't yet consented to letting me get a dog.  That is still a matter I'm working on negotiating with him.  There is no loosing that battle... I am confident that we W.I.L.L. have a dog, or two, someday. 

And when we have the opportunity to choose a pup for our family, we'll be choosing a pup from a litter of Labradors.  Blond, black, brown... I still haven't decided which color of Lab I'd want but we'll definitely buy a Lab.  And here's just one reason why...

... they're water dogs.  They L.O.V.E. the water probably just as much, if not more, than I do.  It only seems suiting.

Labrador Retrievers are great companion dogs, they're well tempered around kids and always young at heart even when they're 89 years old in dog years!  I LOVE love L.O.V.E. labs!  My parents have owned 2 blond labs, Bridgette and Buddy.  It's been a couple of years since I've visited with either dog, both have gone to "Doggy Heaven".  They were T.H.E. B.E.S.T. family dogs!!! I swear to you, my dad loved them both as if they were one of his own children. On holidays or birthdays, he send us cards signed from them and I remember him calling Bridgette on a couple of occasions, my sister.  Buddy traveled with my parents on family vacations and both dogs took normal jaunts along the beach with either my dad or me, when I was home from school.  Whether it was in our backyard pool or in the ocean, our dogs would surge underwater, no matter how deep, to retrieve a rock I tossed.  They LOVED the water and they lived right up to their names as retrieval dogs. 

In June I had the chance to take Noah and Cohen and meet up with my sister Tricia and her girls to watch a few labs in an event called Splash Dogs at Thanksgiving Point.  The event hosted all kinds of dogs, the majority though were Labs, in competitions such as long distance/retrieval jumping into splash pools, relay racing, frisbee catching and vertical jumping challenges.  It was fascinating watching these canines!  They were all so agile.

My particular favorite challenge was the jumping/retrieval challenge in the splash pool; it reminded me of Buddy and Bridgette. Buddy loved the ocean and would race past all the other dogs on the shoreline to get out in the waves; he'd swim a good distance out to cruise right along side the surfers and Bridgette enjoyed a dip in our pool at least 20 or 30 times EVERY afternoon.  It was impossible to swim in our pool without Bridgette right there next to us in the water.

I don't know which more impressive... the distance the dogs leaped or the size of the splash they made!

Along with all the challenges, the event also sponsored a lot of clinics; such as physical therapy clinics for dogs, doggy obedience classes, doggy hypnosis, dog whisperers, clinics to help owners cope and grieve with the loss of their pets... the list of clinics went on an on.  We were walking around the grounds of the event looking at all the clinics set up, when my sister spotted a booth where she thought they were selling cotton candy.  She wanted to buy some, so she approached the lady at the booth, only to take a closer look at "the cotton candy" and discover it wasn't candy at all, but instead a pink poodle!  It was too funny to see this dog decked out in pink! (the poor thing).  The owner had dyed it's fur completely cotton candy pink, painted its nails pink and even adorned it in pink bows! Normally I HATE poodles (remember I hate ankle biting yapping dogs) but this dog was adorable!

Noah L.O.V.E.D. this dog, so much so that as we were leaving the event, he asked if we could adopt a pink poodle just like the one we had seen.  I admit, it was really cute, but my answer was "NO".  I don't have any desire to own a pink "rat" that barks all day long.

I'm pretty certain that would be about the "GAYEST" thing I could ever do to my family of all boys... it would probably damage their "manlihood" if I added a pink poodle to the mix!

No worries, I'm still set on winning the argument with Spencer and adopting a dog, just as soon as we have grass planted in the backyard, and our first dog WILL be a lab.  Nothing but the best!