2009/03/05

a lovely day for a swim

The weather was truly beautiful today. Temperatures in the mid-70's, sunny with very little wind.

Since the fellow next door has taken ill and stopped feeding feral cats, they have moved on and the squirrels are coming back.

Rocky and Marly get upset when squirrels climb on the screen enclosing our swimming pool. This afternoon Marly was so distracted by a squirrel overhead that she fell into the pool. In the deep end. At least twenty feet from the steps at the shallow end.

I ran toward her but she swam across to the other side, still in deep water. She tried to reach up to the edge but it was too far above the level of the water. I sped around to the steps and called her to me; she came over and was able to get out on her own.

The water is rather cold, but not freezing; nevertheless it was cold enough to make her shiver severely. I fetched a bath towel and dried her as much as I could, but she kept shaking for a long time - probably due to the adrenaline rush from her unexpected dunking.

At this point Marly really wanted to go into the house, but she needed to warm up quickly. The sun was shining brightly and the outside air was warm; inside the house it was several degrees cooler, so I kept the door closed and basically forced her to sit in the sun. I brought the doormat out on to the concrete and carried her over to it; I sat beside her and pulled her back whenever she tried to escape to the shade.

During the drying process, her brother Rocky whined pitifully. He was so very worried about her.

Eventually Lisa came out. We sat and talked for a long time, the dogs at our feet and Jack sitting on a nearby table. A pleasant afternoon with the family.

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