Saturday, July 16, 2016

The balletic trajectory.


The weather heating up again. At seven the mayor is at the front door to borrow the step ladders. Three days of national mourning have been declared and now, for the third time in eighteen months, he's furling the tricolors on the war memorial and wrapping them in black crepe ribbon. To an Anglo-Saxon this seems a very Victorian touch. Rather like wearing black arm bands at a funeral.


In the afternoon we sit under the umbrellas by the side of the pool. 'The Font' has received the new course material for the semester that starts in September. Angus tries to show interest but gets lost at 'gravitational fluxes'. 

Sophie patrols the garden. She chases lizards. One lizard scurries across the white stone surround of the pool. Sophie leaps, in a most amazingly balletic way, on top of it. Except she doesn't. Sophie's sense of distance is found wanting. She misses the lizard . Her trajectory does however take her into the pool. Angus drops his book and leaps in. She's chosen the deep end to fall into. PONs always choose to leap into the deep end of pools, never the shallow end.



We thought there might be a 'diva' moment. Instead we get the cold shoulder. That unmistakable PON '' Call yourself dog lovers ? How could you have let that happen to me ? " treatment.

She is dried out and has almost recovered within twenty minutes. A slice of cold carrot helps. I could swear she glares at me.




16 comments:

Coppa's girl said...

Oh Angus, what a tragedy - a tragedy that 'The Font' didn't manage to capture the whole episode on video. Sophie falling in the pool, and you leaping in afterwards ! It would have gone viral on U Tube. Thank you for raising a smile, when there isn't a great deal to cheer us at the moment.

Virginia said...

Oh Angus, I'm visualising it all too clearly - hilarious! And when we do need help to raise a smile. All those family people, lives changed forever. I read, on another blog, that Winston Churchill said "Jaw, jaw, jaw - it's better than war, war, war" It'd be nice to try that, wouldn't it!

WFT Nobby said...

Oh Sophie, how perfectly horrid, ending up in the swimming pool like that. Such negligent humans you have. Angus buried in his book and the 'Font' no doubt busy in the kitchen contemplating gravitational waves. You were very restrained in your reaction to such neglect, I'd say.
Toodle pip!
Bertie.

Beau and Mom said...

Sophie looks beautiful after her "dip" in the pool!!
Question: did the planets ever turn up for Bob spin each morning on the dishwasher? (that could explain what's gone wrong with the world. We need Bob to set the universe back in its correct & honest path.)

Anonymous said...

My question is for the Font: Did you laugh out loud or did you do the "wifely stifle" and laugh later? Sophie being Sophie is hilarious. I laughed out loud.
I am so glad that you decided to experience a female pup.
Thank you for the smile, I needed it. The world is spinning too wildly for me... Pam in NH

MrsDuncanMahogany said...

Poor darling...such a shock!

Swan said...

I wish there were pictures of that! Your blog is a ray of sunshine. Thank you

Unknown said...

Another laugh out loud moment. Thanks for that.

How Sam Sees It said...

LOL - she is expecting your to jump in front of her before she lands in the pool!

Monty, Harlow and Ramble

Unknown said...

Were you attired for pool diving?

Emm said...

Do PONs not swim? Perhaps next time you buy another stuffed lamb, you could also buy Sophie her very own life jacket. Or personal flotation device, as we call them now in a world of inflated terminology.
Agreed that a YouTube version would have been an international sensation.

Angus said...

In a previous house with a much larger swimming pool I once had to dive in to rescue an absent minded PON from the 4 1/2 metre deep end. On that occasion there was time to remove my jacket but not my tie. Last nigth there was neither jacket nor tie to worry about. Nor, indeed lace up shoes.

Angus said...

They swim but badly and inelegantly and always seem to swim away from the steps. They also have a habit of going deep before surfacing.

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Apple finally caught a chipmunk yesterday. We took it away from her. She has glared at us ever since.

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

Definitely glaring.....we think.

BaileyBobSouthernDog said...

Sophie's hair must have weighed a ton by the time she surfaced! What an unexpected bath for all involved.