The following happened to me on Thursday the 17th of February 2000, and I really want to share it with you.
It was my Gran's birthday, and as she had passed away last May 1999, and her ashes were spread over the sea, I decided to throw some flowers into the sea.
It was late in the evening (around 10 pm) before I had the opportunity to go to the beach, and I took Cody and my friend's Jack Russell Terrier Simcha, a little 5 month old puppy.
'Both dogs had a great time, while I walked into the shallow sea (water up to my ankles - I was wearing my rubber boots) to reach and climb on the rocks at the "harbour head", to be able to throw the bunch of flowers into the sea.
In the meantime Cody was playing with Simcha near the water. Well, I was walking in the sea when I suddenly sank into this hole, I was in the water up to my waist!
I still wanted to throw the bunch of flowers to honour Gran, so I went on, and climbed up the nearest rock (actually a concrete block), which was slippery with algae.
To my horror I didn't see Simcha anywhere, while Cody was still standing at the water-line. I heard something behind me, and there she was, swimming behind me, between the concrete blocks. She had followed me! I grabbed her, and hauled her up onto the rock. There we sat, both shivering, in the moonlit night, on a slippery rock!
I half got up, squatting, took Simcha under my arm, trying my best not to slide away, quickly threw the flowers into the sea, called out "Happy Birthday, Gran!", got off the rock, into the waist-deep water again, and made my way to the sand, where Cody was still standing, waiting for me.
It was cold...my boots were filled with water, my trousers were soaking wet, and Simcha was shivering... I managed to walk up to a concrete block to sit on and tried to take off my boots. That was quite a hard thing to do. When I finally managed to take them off, some liters of water came out.
Of course I also had to take off my socks. I wrung them and put them into the boots. Carrying the boots in my hand I walked back to where the car was: barefoot on the ice cold sand!
Both dogs were following me. The beach is very broad where this all took place, so it took some time to reach the boulevard. The boots were very heavy, so I turned them upside down to get the remaining water out of them. Out fell one of my socks, and Cody immediately grabbed it and ran off with it.
Now I had to chase Cody to get my sock back. Of course he wouldn't come, and I guess Simcha also liked the game he was playing, because she was running after Cody and trying to get the sock from him. Maybe she was wanting to help me...???
Well, I finally made it back to the car, Cody eventually followed me and I got the sock back from him.
I had an old towel in the car, with which I managed to sort of dry Simcha off a bit. I put my rain coat on the driver's seat to prevent my chair from getting soaked and took off driving barefoot (funny feeling!).
Now I had to take Simcha home first. Of course there was no parking space near my friend's place, so I had to park around the corner and walk Simcha to her house. I was constantly hoping nobody would see me in my soaked trousers, on my bare feet, walking a wet doggy... (I left Cody in the car).
My friend was still not there when I got to her place, so I let myself in with the key, dragged Simcha up the stairs, and put her in the crate with some kibble.
I had phoned my daughter to explain why I was late (I was carrying my mobile phone), so I got home to a couch potatoe nearly falling off the couch with laughter.
Thank goodness neither Simcha nor I suffered any ill effects from our wet adventure, and I guess my gran had a great laugh witnessing this whole scene.
Next day when I walked Cody on the beach, I found a couple of heart shaped stones along the flood line, as if Gran wanted to say thanks for making her laugh. She always had a great sense of humour!
Of course Simcha's mom loved the story and calls me "Simcha's swimming partner", and e-mailed my story around the world to some of her friends.
I also generated lots of laughter telling this story to friends and colleagues, so I decided to write it down and let everybody have a good laugh!
