{"id":283,"date":"2010-03-01T09:25:36","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T17:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/?p=283"},"modified":"2010-03-01T09:25:36","modified_gmt":"2010-03-01T17:25:36","slug":"the-swim-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/01\/the-swim-about\/","title":{"rendered":"The Swim About"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A girl and her dog<\/p><\/div>\n

As I\u2019ve mentioned before, Norah is new to us. We bought her from a breeder. She was four years old and had just finished having a litter of sweet, tiny, golden puppies. She\u2019s slightly neurotic and dumb as a pile of rocks, but nice enough company. She\u2019s good with kids and small so she can fit into tight spaces. She\u2019s the Honda Accord of dogs \u2013 very practical.<\/p>\n

One day, Josie, my mother, Norah and I go for a walk on the beach. We head left and Norah takes off to the right. She\u2019s gone, around the point. We play around for a minute, calling her and waiting for her to come back. Nothing. Josie works on her beach relocation project \u2013 she carries rock after rock down to the water\u2019s edge and throws it. Finally after calling and calling, I walk around the point and look down the beach. No Norah. She\u2019s vanished. Fortunately, we\u2019re in a small community where we know almost everyone and I know she\u2019ll make her way home eventually.<\/p>\n

I start walking down the beach while my mother and Josie throw rocks. It\u2019s a clear warm-ish afternoon. There\u2019s a layer of high clouds and a little blue sky. The sun is nearing the horizon and marking a patch of orange over a neighboring island. The water is completely still. There\u2019s not even a bird or otter around to break the surface. I turn back to tell Josie that I\u2019ve found the perfect rock for her to throw when I see something in the water coming around the point.<\/p>\n

A kayak? It\u2019s an animal but it\u2019s moving so fast. Polar bear? No, pretty sure there aren\u2019t polar bears in the Puget Sound, even in the winter. Beaver?<\/p>\n

I remember seeing a beaver swim in Lake Washington. It was a dark almost unidentifiable form that was mostly under water. Only its nostrils stuck out. It was like a ripple \u2013 a single wave, moving through a clear surface. It was like you didn\u2019t see the animal, only the water it displaced.<\/p>\n

But this animal isn\u2019t a beaver, of course, it\u2019s Norah. But she doesn\u2019t look like any other dog I\u2019ve seen in the water. Most dogs I know snort and huff and paw at the surface. As she round the point about 15\u2019 offshore, I call her but she doesn\u2019t hear me, doesn\u2019t look at me, just keeps going right on past us.<\/p>\n

As Paul says, she\u2019s made for speed, streamlined, even her head is shaped kind of like an arrow \u2013 \u201cnot much room for brains but she sure is fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

I worry she isn\u2019t smart enough to come back to the beach before she runs out of energy. Assuming she started swimming right away, and that is why I couldn\u2019t find her on the beach, she\u2019s been swimming for about 15 minutes. But it looks like swimming is as easy as walking for her. I call her name again just as she\u2019s swimming around the far point and out of sight. Finally she veers toward the beach but then back out again. Each time I call, she veers toward me then away. I call her name over and over and over and gradually \u2013 like Josie to a packet of string cheese \u2013 she\u2019s pulled in. When she finally washes up on shore, I\u2019m nearly hoarse.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Norah has a good shake and when I give her a good pat on the head, I notice that her fur is completely dry from the top of her head down through her shoulder blades. She looks up at me like, what\u2019s the big deal lady? I was just checking things out.<\/p>\n

OK, maybe she\u2019s not the Accord of dogs. Maybe she\u2019s something a little sportier. Maybe she\u2019s a Civic. Maybe she\u2019s an Impreza. Maybe she\u2019s an Impreza with a spoiler\u2026 and a hood vent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve mentioned before, Norah is new to us. We bought her from a breeder. She was four years old and had just finished having a litter of sweet, tiny, golden puppies. She\u2019s slightly neurotic and dumb as a pile of rocks, but nice enough company. She\u2019s good with kids and small so she can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mom","category-norah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}