Videos: 2002-2004

August 22, 2011 | By | Add a Comment

 

Summer 2002: Shayna up to her elbows in water… but still afraid to swim

When I adopted Shayna, the intake form said that she and her twin sister had been rescued from having spent three days in a storm drain (which would be in March 2002, Charlottesville, VA). It must have been a cold, wet, terrifying experience for a 10-11 week old baby like she and he sister were.

Starting that summer, no matter how I coaxed her, she would not swim for the first 18 months of her life. She would watch other dogs swim, even dive off piers, but she would only go in to about her elbows/belly on really hot days, and that was it. If I picked her up and tried to carry her further out, she began yelping and screaming. I didn’t push it, of course. In fact, I think that only happened once. The last thing I ever wanted to do was inflict more trauma on her.

That doesn’t mean she didn’t have fun in the water, even with this limitation.

From our big 2002 summer road trip… enjoy:

(1) At the ocean in Maine:

(2) In New York:

(3) In Pennsylvania:

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