Ruby’s story……………….

As you probably know by now, I’m a Labrador that just loves water. Any water will do, it doesn’t have to be clean, it just has to be wet, and I’m in there. I’ve swam in the sea, in rivers, streams, the canal, ditches, puddles and even a neighbour’s fish pond. If there’s water there, I’m like…. well, I’m like a duck to water. But there is one thing that I draw the line at, and that’s paddling pools.

During this long hot heat wave, of one day, they thought that it would be a good idea to buy me a paddling pool to cool off in. “She’s bound to go in it” they said, “she’s a Lab, she loves water” they said. But no, I am having none of it,

First of all, its bright blue….. it doesn’t go with anything in the garden. Second of all its made out of plastic, and thirdly it’s for a baby and should have sand in it not water.

They’ve tried everything, throwing carrots in, but its so small, I can just stand at the edge and stretch my neck to get the carrots out, they’ve thrown my favourite treats in, and I must say they did nearly got me with that, I did go as far as put my two front paws in, retrieved the treat and stepped right back out again. They’ve thrown my favourite ball in, but all that did was fill the ball with water and when it floated up to me at the side I picked it out took it into the kitchen and squeezed all the water out of the ball onto the kitchen floor. My mum has even got in the paddling pool herself to try and tempt me in, really, is she serious, does she think that I’m getting in there after she’s had her trotters in, you must be joking,

So the paddling pool is still sitting in the garden full of water, with bits of old carrot skins floating in it, a few dead insects and some dog slobber from when my friend Simpson called round and decided to have a drink out of it,

Even though the one day heat wave is now over, it is still quite warm, so when we go out on our walk this afternoon, I might just go for a paddle in one of the muddy ditches in the field to cool off.

Mum’s story………..

There has been talk all week of a mini heatwave for this weekend, so mini it lasted a day, blink and you might have missed it. But as we know that Ruby loves to lie in the sun and bake herself, and seeing as though she’s a Labrador who loves the water, we thought what a good idea it would be to get a paddling pool. Well I say “we” thought it would be a good idea, the other half thought that it was a total waste of money and that she wouldn’t go in it. True to form Ruby has proved me wrong again and the other half right, which he takes great delight in pointing out to me

We got the paddling pool home. Its not specifically for dogs, it is in fact for toddlers and you’re supposed to fill one half with water and the other half with sand. But I thought this was brilliant because we could fill both halves with water and Ruby could have double the fun splashing about in both sides.

How wrong was I. She’s not been near it, well I tell a lie, she had a sniff round it when we first brought it home, as she does with anything new that comes into the house. But from that point on she has kept a safe distance away.

We’ve thrown carrots in, which she did just pick out by just stretching her neck and reaching in, I’ve thrown treats in, and this did have a better result, she actually placed her two front paws in the water, “this is it we’ve cracked it”, I thought, but nope she grabbed the treat and was straight back out. We threw her blue plastic ball in that she absolutely, loves but that just filled up with water which ended up being squeezed out onto the kitchen floor when she took it in there. I’ve even got in the damned pool myself trying to tempt her in, but she just sat along side the other half, them both staring at me as if I’d gone mad.

So yet again, Ruby has done the exact opposite to what we want her to do. Just watch, when we take her out for a walk this afternoon, knowing her she’ll probably find the deepest muddiest ditch to jump in.

So there it sits full of water, a few carrot skins and a couple of dead flies, oh and some dog slobber from when my friends dog came round and used it as a drinking bowl.

We might just use it to keep the beer cold next time we have a heatwave.

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