Those Lilly Pads Look Pretty Solid

Every summer my wife and I, along with her parents, paddle into Algonquin Park, about 4 hours north of Toronto, for our annual canoe trip. Skippy's first trip with us was in 2004 and she has been a welcome addition every year since. We soon discovered that the camping experience afforded Skippy the environment in which she could truly be a dog, as I have described in other posts. It also provides many new and unfamiliar challenges that test Skippy's assumptions of reality. Case in point: lily pads.

During her first trip into the interior, there were a few strange occurrences but nothing involving the canoe or the water. Perhaps she was too frightened by this strange experience to know the extent of the danger that lay beyond the gunnels of the boat. But the following year, was altogether different. On the first day, while paddling slowly along a narrow river, Skippy assumed a more bold, or shall I say, a more inquisitive position on the canoe. Her forepaws on the gunnel, she now could see the water fleeting by below her. Here she stayed, curious and watchful, until we stopped near a dam.

Maybe we were talking about the dam itself, or we might have been admiring the beauty of the trees and the river, but we certainly were not watching the dog. And so, when we heard a loud splash off port side of my in-laws' canoe, we all quickly turned to see Skippy frantically swimming through a mass of lily pads toward the shore, more than ten feet away. Evidently, she mistook the lily pads for dry ground. She ignored all calls to come back and hastily focused her efforts on getting safely to shore: the only thing she was certain now that was dry. In a few moments Skippy was sitting on the shore, shaking as she bore an expression of complete confusion, as if to ask, "What just happened to me?"

It's funny what we take for granted as pet owners. We assume our pets perceive things in the same way we do. In this situation it hadn't occurred to us that the large, flat plants covering the surface of the water could be perceived for anything other than what they were: flat, floating plants. But why should Skippy see it this way? If one had no other previous experience or knowledge, it is conceivable that they could make the same mistake. Now this incident was still strange, and made me shake my head in disbelief at the crazy things this dog will do, that I'm sure seem perfectly normal to her. But it did get me thinking about what else I take for granted and what my Jack Russell has absolutely no clue about.

Moments before the plunge.