Sea Dog

My friend MC has a little motor cruiser which she keeps in a place called La Londe les Maures.

Leaving the marina at La Londe les Maures

We’re usually invited down for day trips during the summer and we love to go. The LSH in particular enjoys it – he grew up beside the sea and he really misses it.

The ice-cream boat, which tours around the bays and inlets, selling ice-cream to boaters

Last year, we only went once, as far as I can remember. We were reluctant to leave Cinnamon in the care of others – we were always worried about keeping her safe and reasonably happy. The one time we went, we brought Cookie with us, so that there would be no possibility of her attacking Cinny if the blind, confused small brown dog accidentally bumbled into her. Cookie was good on the boat, but a little anxious the whole time, and we ourselves were anxious about Cinny the whole time so we didn’t do it again.

When we were invited to visit a couple of weeks ago, we decided it would be best to bring Casey with us. He’s downright destructive when he’s bored, and he suffers from severe separation anxiety, probably because he was dumped. For the sake of our walls, doors and skirting boards, it was definitely best not to leave him at home. Our kind friends offered to let Cookie and Rosie out during the day and they even watered my little vegetable garden!

“What you doing, crazy human?”

That first time, Casey learned all about boats.
He learned that when he needed to pee, he was put in the little inflatable and brought to shore.

Time for pipi!

He learned to swim, and ended up swimming all the way back out to the boat after his first toilet visit. It wasn’t planned – he was meant to stay in the inflatable, but he jumped out when he saw me in the water. He was a bit shaken by that – half way back, he began to panic. The fear was plain to see in his eyes, but MC was lightning fast and as soon as he neared the back of the boat, she scooped him out of the water and onto the safety of the deck.

Later in the day, he actually asked to go back to shore by starting to paw at the inflatable, which was tied to the back of the boat. He’s a clever dog!

The second trip was last Monday. I swear he knew where we were going as soon as we got into the car.

“Are we going where I think we’re going?”

He was much more comfortable on the boat, too. This time, we were anchored closer to shore, so we didn’t bother using the inflatable to go in for doggy toilet trips, the LSH swam him in.

I think if we had this inflatable, it would have been used to take Casey to shore. So cute!

Initially, he was a bit goofy in the water, aiming for other boats and swimming confused circles around the LSH but by the time he came back from his last visit, he literally made a beeline for the correct boat and came back out to us like a little brown and white torpedo.