I dropped Haley off at a fellow gymnast’s house for outdoor masked practice last weekend, and planned a walk with Maverick from their house to the Gig Harbor waterfront, which is about a mile away. What a gorgeous day for a walk!
I stopped to take a few photos, of course, including this one of Mount Rainier in the background on the very left. Since we were on the side of the road with hardly any shoulder at all, I put Maverick on a sit-stay and looped the leash over my toes. He sat watching the water from the other side of the guardrail.
Until he jumped. He leapt, flying-squirrel style, under the guardrail and into the water – off the six or seven foot concrete wall, into the high tide salt water below! I barely had enough leash to hold onto him without strangling him (which he did, as he hit the water below, until I squatted down somewhat). It’s a six foot leash, so… do the math.
I was like, WHAT NOW?! I couldn’t really jump down off the wall and into the water (didn’t seem like a great plan, and I’d get all wet). But Maverick started to freak out. He realized that he was separated from me by a vertical wall, and had no way back up. I calmed him down and we carefully walked together, several feet apart by leash, toward the closest privately-owned dock I could see.
Eventually we got to a place with some wet sand, and a lower wall. Maverick kept trying to scale the wall to get back to me – he even broke a nail doing it! When I thought it was a short enough wall, I jumped down with him and boosted him out. All 80 pounds. And then I let him walk on the wall until we found a public access gate, and I jumped up too. Phew! He was so muddy and wet for the car ride home (and his toe was bleeding).
When I picked up Haley, she said, “Why is he all wet?” I smiled and said, “Wait until I tell you what happened!”
The Keene Family 