Danger in the Depths!

Some days are just so lovely. Thursday started off like that.

Elizabeth took me on a ride first thing, and we dropped off the garbage and the recycling for pick-up at the Big Gravel Path. After breakfast, she pumped up the deflated wheelbarrow tire so she could start taking her hot peppers from the balcony garden down to the  Greenhouse, which is actually brown until you step inside and see all the plants Kay has in there!

We haven’t had frost yet, but we’ve had several warnings. Elizabeth still has a lot to do before she’s ready for frost.

On the way in to get the first pepper plants, Elizabeth was distracted by the Kibble Snatcher family. While she was hand feeding them, a stranger Growly Beast came into our driveway.

Kay and Elizabeth seemed to be expecting the fellow who got out of it. They knew who he was, anyway. He’d come to go for a swim.

Odd. It was pretty cool for two-leggers to be swimming. The two-legger pups next door didn’t go last weekend. But, oh, well… I’m always happy to make a new friend. If he swims, so much the better!

I was all ready to take him down to Al and Joanne’s dock, where the two-leggers all like to swim from. Elizabeth had just come up from taking the first load of pepper plants down the hill, and the man asked her where the best place to go in would be.

While we had been down the hill, he’d changed into his swimming fur. I’d never seen anything like it! But I was too polite to say anything. Besides, I kinda liked him. He was a good ear-scratcher.

We walked down the hill again, this time taking the path to Al and Joanne’s dock. But instead of turning that way, we headed straight on down to the water’s edge. He sat down on a rock and made a few adjustments to his swimming fur and then began to walk out into the water. He sort of lay down on the surface, like two leggers do when they go swimming. And then he disappeared!

Elizabeth ran up the hill. I stayed down at the shore waiting for him to come up again.

I waited.

I waited.

He didn’t come back up.

Where did he go? Something’s gone very wrong here…

I found this very distressing. I didn’t know what to do. I paced along the shore calling him to come back.

But he was gone.

Elizabeth returned. I thought she’d gone for help. She had actually gone for her camera.

Noticing how distressed I was, she sat down quite calmly on a rock beside me. “He’s okay, Stella. Look! See those bubbles? That’s Dave! That’s where he is. See? There they are again. That’s him!”

Okay. We have a bubble blurp. Still no Dave, though. I don’t think a two-legger can hold much more air in their lungs. He’s been down there an awfully long time. He needs HELP!

I didn’t care what she was saying. Diver Dave was in trouble. And I didn’t see how I could help him.

Yup. See what I mean? He’s drowning!

Then I saw him!

What on earth is going on? Something’s got a hold of Diver Dave!

I ran over to another spot where I thought maybe I could get to him faster.

My Newfie genes were screaming, “RESCUE HIM! RESCUE HIM!”

As you know, though, the other 3/4 of me is Great Pyrenees. “WAIT! You don’t know what that is out there, and you can’t get to something that’s underwater. What if it comes out and goes after Elizabeth and you’re caught out in the bay when it attacks her? STAY AND GUARD ELIZABETH!”

I am so conflicted…

Just as I am about to jump in,

Diver Dave emerges, victorious!

As he rose out of the depths, he said to Elizabeth, “There’s a big turtle down there… if you want some soup!”

Big turtle? It must have been GARGANTUAN!

He seemed a bit tired as he came out. I noticed that he stumbled a bit as he waded back into shore. But he seemed quite nonchalant. As we walked back up the hill to the house, he was talking quite casually to Elizabeth about witches’ hats and putting a few rocks on this one to weight it down, how there was a lot of heavy algae at the same level as the pump, how he’d checked the pump and everything was okay…. He didn’t seem rattled at all by his horrific encounter.

I knew there were turtles in our bay. I had no idea there was a witch down there, too. Witches. Giant turtles….

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go swimming again!