A Pool Warming Party

Above, five wet Goldens race to be first to fetch the tennis ball.  

We finally had our pool warming for the spring.   We invited several foster family's in to help us warm the pool up in style.   Would you believe 10 Golden Retrievers in the pool?   We had our cousins, Emma, Molly and Piper, then we had two more foster parent families, Sarge, Shorsha and Evelyn, and River, Riley with foster Sonny, and their cousin.  Below, I am trying to get a ball without having to jump in. 

What a great party we had.   We had to award the prize for the wettest dog to 8 dogs.   Bella and Emma did not want to get in, they were afraid they would mess up their hair.   They got wet, but it was second hand wet from playing with us when we got out and shook.   The rest of us got wet and stayed wet.   Piper might have qualified for the most time in the pool, she got in and then refused to get out for any reason, staying in the pool for the whole party. 

The pool started out fairly clean, but as the day wore on it turned a pretty brown color.    We jumped out of the pool and ran around, we rolled in the dirt in the garden, then jumped back in the pool.  The pool cleaner said he wanted us to not roll in the dirt, so we rolled in the grass instead, but that was not much better, he had just mowed and we just filled the pool with grass instead of filling it with dirt.   Below, Sarge ( or maybe that is River and Sarge is already in) jumps in after a ball while the rest of us try to beat him to it.    I am wearing a yellow swim vest.   Half way through the party they put the yellow swim vest on me, they decided that I was swimming too hard and I was in danger of wearing myself out.   I did not care much for the vest, but it did make me swim faster. 

Then there was hair.  We were all shedding our winter coat, so the skimmers had to be cleaned several times during the day.   Enough hair was in the pool filter that we could knitt several more Golden Retrievers.    We thought there was a cream/white Golden or two, but once they were wet and had rolled in the dirt, everyone looked the same.   Abby was especially dirty, she rolled in the dirt and then rolled some more, she was so dirty they washed her with a hose before they would let her back in.  Below, a good shake is all it takes to be ready to jump in again.

What fun we had, the humans put us on leashes to dry us off and keep us from rolling in the dirt again.   We managed to get away and jump in again until the fence around the pool was put up again.   We were dried off, then we took long naps before we had dinner.   After I finish my blog, I think I will take another nap.   It was a very wild and fun day.    I wonder if we could get 15 goldens in the pool next time?

Mogley G. Retriever