Koho’s Big Adventure

For New Year’s this year I will be celebrating out of town. My usual “dogsitter” friends are also going out of town so Sheila, a good friend of my family, who has kind of adopted me when my mom is in Hawaii agreed to help me out. I asked her if she would come by my house and check on Koho a couple of the days I was gone. Not wanting to impose, I told her that I would leave Koho in the garage/side yard so she could be warm inside the garage, but still have access to the backyard. I would leave her a big bowl of food and water. Sheila said she was happy to help out, but wanted me to bring Koho to stay at her place. As many times as I said I didn’t want to impose, she insisted that Koho come spend the few days with her.

Sheila wanted me to bring Koho over before hand in order to meet her dog Cain and just to be sure they got along before I left her for a long period of time. This evening I had dinner plans in her neighborhood so I brought Koho over before heading out to dinner for a couple of hours.

The initial dog meeting was uneventful. They sniffed each others’ butts while wagging their tails. Cain followed Koho around the house while she explored her new surroundings. Before I left for dinner, Sheila and I went into her kitchen to see her new cupboards. While we talked, the dogs wandered around getting to know each other. However, after a few moments I looked over and Koho was starting to poop in the family room. How mortifying, right? I quickly ushered her outside into the dark backyard. She ran around the pool to the back corner of the yard to finish her business. Then she made a 180 turn, walked about 2 steps, and fell right into the swimming pool as I yelled, “No, no, no!” I watched her sink down to the bottom and then bounce back up. Rather than swim to the side she was next to, she swam the length of the pool to the other side, put her front paws on the side, and waited for me to pull her out.

At this point, I was still recovering from the pooping and now reeling from the unexpected swim. My dog is like 100 years old and, although it is not as cold as it is in other places, the water was probably only about 40 degrees. I’m surprise that she didn’t have a heart attack right there. But, we got her dried off and back in the house with the fireplace. Sheila told me to go and they would be fine. I headed to dinner, telling her to call if there were anymore incidents.

Thankfully, no phone calls during dinner, and I returned to pick her up about 2 hours later. When Sheila let me in Cain was right by her side. She said that everything went fine. She said she would go upstairs and get Koho. Why you ask? Because Koho decided that she needed to sleep on Sheila’s bed. I grabbed her leash and walked upstairs. When I got into the bedroom Sheila was sitting on the bed petting my dog, while her dog sat on the floor. What a brat!

I brought Koho home after making arrangements to bring her back before I go out of town. Can you believe that she is even welcome back? I can’t. Koho is a very, very tired dog tonight.