Abby Sunshine

We don’t always have a camera handy when the time is right. Sometimes we must create a picture with our words. Here is what happened.
Abby Sunshine accompanied us on a pontoon adventure!

What fun! A pontoon is a great way to cruise on a lake, wind in the hair, yet not so fast that a good conversation is still able to take place.

Abby Sunshine got a little bit nutty on this ride. We thought this would be an exciting new adventure for the little pupper wupper. Well, exciting it was. Abby was beside herself with extreme enthusiasm. She had been swimming earlier, fetching in the water (which she loves). We entered the boat, and almost immediately Abby began with the high pitched “Toller scream.” This is a shrill sound, less than pleasant to the human ear. When a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever gets super excited, this is what they do. I think she wanted to do more fetching from the boat, I’m not exactly sure. Todd was sitting with Abby way up front by the little gate, which was open (bad idea) watching ahead as we moved forward on Sugar Lake. Next thing I know Abby bolts forward and has jumped overboard! Yikes! We were all shocked and luckily the driver, our friend, Jon, used his catlike reflexes and immediately turned off the motor. It was a moment of anxiety for all of us- Where was Abby Sunshine? Would she know what to do to survive if she found herself underwater with a boat over her head? Renae didn’t realize that a pontoon floats on two large “pontoons” and the rest of the portion under the boat is actually above water. Not knowing this caused Renae to really worry about where little Abby would be able to swim up and out of the water. We looked all around. Then we saw an adorable little creature that looked just like sea otters swimming in the wake of ocean boats.

It was Abby! She was swimming along, apparently unharmed. She swam to us at the back of the boat and we assisted her back into the boat. She immediately shook water off on all of us.

We thought this adventure might cool her jets for the remainder of the ride. It did not. She continued to squeal in ecstasy, loudly gazing off into all of that wonderful water. Upon return to shore, Todd tossed her overboard and let her swim in. That seemed to make her day.