Murphy's first swim

This afternoon, I took Murphy down to Harpers Ferry. For the most part, he was very well-behaved despite the large crowds. I sat and read my book, and he lay next to me, undisturbed by everyone around us.

Good dog.

The only flaw was when I was looking at a Civil War display that the park service had set up, and a stranger started to pet and play with Murphy. Murphy was getting a bit rambunctious so I pulled him back, only to have him turn and leap up onto a large man standing next to the guy who'd wound him up. That man had a white polo shirt on and Murphy's paws were covered with mud. You can imagine how that went over. That man was not amused, nor was he much inclined to accept my apology.

Bad dog.

So I took Murphy for a walk down by the river, and there were a number of geese in the water. Murphy, predictably, wanted to go after the geese and he was getting excited again as I slowly walked him down to the shore. There was a small, shallow area right in front of us, and a little stone wall separated this from the rest of the river. The geese saw Murphy coming and prudently moved to the other side of the wall. I walked over to the wall and let Murphy run in the shallow water to the extent that his leash would allow. I just wanted to see how he'd do, because as far as I know, Murphy's never been in deep water before. I had planned on gradually working him into the deeper areas, but he saw the geese on the other side of the stone wall and leaped over the wall trying to close with them. Unfortunately for Murphy, the water on the other side was 3-4 feet deep, and when he jumped the wall, he hit the deep water and completely submerged.
Surfacing again, he turned around and dog-paddled back to the wall that I was standing on. He put his front paws up on the wall and just stood there, looking at me with his wet face, as if to say "What happened? Why did you let me do that?"
And the geese laughed.

Funny dog.

But at least now I know that he can swim. And Murphy learned--again--that an adventurous young dog's life is full of surprises.

At least Murphy got his ice cream cone from Sharon over at Swiss Miss.