Lesson Learned

I may be a slow learner, but Saturday finally taught me the hard way: I will never ever let Gus off leash outside again.

Here's what happened. It was warm out and I decided to take Gus and Charly to the lake by our house, just a short walk down the road. We got there and the beach was empty except for one woman doing laps in the water. No kids, no lifegaurd, no park police... it seemed safe to let them off leash to frolick in the water.

WRONG! And I should have known... Gus is just unpredictable. Most of the time he's a good dog, doesn't run off too far, and comes when he's called. But Saturday was a whole different story.

I tossed a stick into the water and Gus jumped right in after it. Great, I thought! They'll get lots of exercise this morning and I won't have to worry about keeping them entertained later this afternoon. We'll just play fetch for the next 10 minutes and he'll get all tuckered out. The rest of the day will be a piece of cake!

I was so proud when Gus swam back to shore and dropped off the stick directly in front of me. Neither of our dogs are very good fetchers, but they seem to enjoy the game more when it involves swimming. And then as I bent down to pick up the piece of wood, I saw Gussy out of the corner of my eye, slowly trotting away from me along the edge of the water. I called to him to come, but I guess he'd found something much more fun to do than to chase a stupid stick into a lake. Then all of a sudden, he was gone. He'd disappeard into the woods along the shoreline and I couldn't find him anywhere.

After 5 or so minutes I started to panic. I kept calling out his name and begged for his return, but he wasn't coming. And then, a full 10 minutes later, out of nowhere, my beloved dog re-appeared from out of the thicket, covered in a thick, foaming coat of slime. I have never seen Gus look more disgusting than when he came out of the woods that day. I have no idea what he found out there, but it was all over him, and it was the most fowl, putrid, and absolutely horrendous smelling stuff I have ever experienced. I called Daniel, and told him our dog had been a very very bad puppy, and that I needed him to come home immediately!!! I was going to need his help if I wanted to clean up this sorry looking mess.

The drama continued for the next hour or so in our backyard, as we tried to bathe Gus with a garden hose and a full bottle of shampoo. You can imagine he wasn't all too pleased. We washed him up 3 times, but the odor, a strong combination of rotting fish, sewage, and decaying algae, still lingered in his fur. After a fourth rinsing, we ran out of shampoo and Daniel had to go out and buy some more.

We ended up washing Gus a grand total of six times. My beautiful Saturday afternoon had been ruined, and I was livid with anger and disappointment. Of course it's nobody's fault but my own.... I love that dog more than anything, but I just can't let him off leash after this M.I.A. episode.

It seems this Buddy Wash Shampoo Daniel found at Chuck and Don's that afternoon did the trick, because Gus is smelling more fresh and clean than he ever has in his life.