Walking on water

On one of our afternoon walks today Bernie and I saw several ducks sitting in the grass at the lake’s edge. He wanted to go after them, but I told him they’d just fly or go out on the water – and he doesn’t do either.

He listened to the dog whisperer, of course. He almost always does. But the encounter reminded me of a good Bernie story. Soon after we got him at four months old, Harriet had him with her out in the pool area. We have a rather large pool; 20 X 40 feet. Bernie was investigating, walking around the edge of the pool, checking out the plants and lizards. At the first corner he came to, he stopped. He eyed the water, looked at the L-shaped decking and decided to take a shortcut – and walk across on the water.

Harriet helped him out, but he hasn’t been swimming since.

These days, it seems to me that more than a few folks in Washington have the same misconception Bernie did. And the rest of us are going to have to take Harriet’s job. Of course, we could just drain the pool.