Shut Up and Paddle

I took my dog, Zoe, to the river again a few weeks ago to the Little Tennessee River in NC. It’s a fairly flat, wide, shallow strectch of river that I was paddling because my younger brother paddled a duckey the day before and wanted to try a kayak. We were with a big group that included newbies and experienced paddlers in yayaks, as well as some sit-on-tops and duckeys.

First of all, my bro did great! Within five minutes of getting in the water, a friend showed him how to do a back deck roll and he pulled a couple off! It was very impressive, especially since it took me months to grasp the concept of rolling. He did great the whole day, and swam a couple of times. He didn’t like being cooped up in the boat, so I am looking to get a bigger “spare” boat that he can paddle more comfortably (until his boat discomfort tolerance increases as it does the more time you spend in your boat, especially upside down learning to roll).

Since it was going to be a slow paddling day with lots of friends around, I decided to bring Zoe with me (and actually one of the dogs who was staying with the shuttle bunny didn’t like her and kept starting fights with her). We donned her doggie PFD and we were off. She bounced around from one person to another as the kids wanted her on their boats but then quickly tired of the responsibility. She got away once and swam to shore. I was very proud, though, when she came swimming back to me and climbed up on my boat. I thought we were really making progress in our training. How wrong I was!!

Shortly after that, she was sitting on my skirt relaxing while I paddled. Apparently she decided she’d rather be doing something else and she stood up and jumped into the water. She swam quickly to the shore, about 20 or so yards away. I paddled after her, laughing hysterically but also getting a little nervous that she would get away from me. Once she is on land without a leash, she is a wild dog and she goes nuts in nature.

With my hand paddles, I just was not fast enough for her and it was so shallow I had to navigate through rocks. She reached the finish line first and went sprinting up into the woods. She ran back and forth, up river and down river, sniffing, jumping, barking, and wagging her happy little tail. I stayed in my boat near shore calling her, trying to wait the happy spell out and hoping she’d come back to me shortly.

Soon my friend joined me at the shore, yelling for her, paddling up and down river a bit to see where she was running. The floatilla stopped just downstream and waited for us. My friend finally got out of his boat and ran around on land chasing Zoe. She loved the chase and ran faster, looking back at him and grinning from ear to ear. She ran down into the water, splashing through and running right past me in my kayak. I almost flipped grabbing for her, and she was just inches out of my reach every time. My friend chased her through the water, running fast across rocks and brush, and dove for her, only to have her slip out of his hands by just an inch or so.

This went on for about ten minutes, maybe more. I finally got out of my boat, even though I knew it wouldn’t make a difference to Zoe, and would probably only encourage her to run since she thinks it’s a game. After I had finally given up and resigned myself to leave my dog in the unknown woods and trust that she’d eventually come back to me, or live out her days in the mountains of North Carolina. About that time, she came running back to us. We were able to throw a leash on her and scoop her up.

She spent the rest of the trip on my friend’s boat, clipped to his PFD. This way he knew she would be safe with him (rather than clipping her to the boat and risk drowning her). It was quite an eventful day! I won’t even describe when she ran away at the camp ground a few weeks ago and went exploring the woods and nearby farms…for TWO hours. What a handful!