Goofy Dog Story.
All of a sudden I feel like telling a true story like most helicopter pilots are prone to do from time to time. Even when there is nothing flying and just dogs and water we can always come up with something.
We call them drop off dogs. I live in the country and when city folks need to get rid of a dog they leave them in a rural area knowing those country folks always take care of animals. I was fortunate to find in my driveway a clean nicely groomed Sheppard type dog with all the vet tags on it's collar. It was great with people and great with kids. He was such a happy dog we named him Goofy. Helicopter pilots are renowned for their dog naming talents.
One day my daughter who was 8 or 9 had a bunch of friends over and they were jumping off a raft in the small river in my front yard. I heard a piercing scream , the dog started howling followed by an even more piercing scream.
I ran down to the river in a panic and my daughter showed me scratches on her back and bite marks on the back of her head. She seemed Ok and was back on the raft. The dog was beside me on shore. She said the dog "came after her" in the water.
At that moment I decided this dog should not be around kids but it went against everything the dog had proven to be for the last couple of years. Things didn't add up so I went a ways up on shore and watched for a while.
What was happening was my daughter would jump into the water and scream and splash around like a drowning person in full panic mode. She was not drowning of course but she sure acted like it. The dog howled , looked at me , looked at her and jumped in the river to save her. He swam around behind her , grabbed her as gently as possible on the back of the head and started bringing her to shore.
Once on shore I told my daughter to sit , stay, and be quiet.
I spent the next 5 minutes praising my dog for saving her life. He understood.
The next 20 minutes I tried to explain it to my daughter. She never understood.
I had that dog for another 8 years with absolutely no problems. But if someone was drowning he would be sure to save them.
No PETA
No Humane society.
No training.
Just the instincts of man's best friend.
Even the ones named Goofy .