Potential comic accidents

[Arch]

Oh, that reminds me - I went canoeing with a friend on the canal in Leicester. We only had the one canoe - hers - so we took turns. When it was my turn to come in to the side to swap, I made the classic mistake of grabbing the bank with my feet still in the canoe, and it started to drift out to the middle, with me clutching the bank. I knew I was going to have to jump for it, and that I would probably go in. But I also knew that I was a fairly strong swimmer, having done my Bronze Medallion, so I mentally braced myself to start treading water the minute I went in, and to keep calm and get myself out of trouble.


<splash>




Although as the canal turned out to be about 18" deep at that point, I simply stood up. Somehow, that felt sillier than having to swim bravely.

 

[Amanda P]

… and that reminds me of a comic accident that happened to my dog, Ricky. Ricky doesn’t like water, so our boating and canoeing trips aren’t always to his liking.

We used to live about three miles down the Derwent from Malton, and it was very pleasant to row our dinghy up the river to get the shopping at Safeways’ on a Saturday morning. We used to take the dog so that he could look after the boat while we were shopping (you can’t easily lock a boat up).

On one of these trips, Ricky decided as we approached home that he’d had enough of being in the boat, and dashed along the length of the boat and made an enormous, spectacular leap for the bank. Unfortunately for him, to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

As the mass of the dog moved northwards along the boat, the boat responded by moving southwards (away from the bank). And as the mass of the dog launched itself northwards from the gunwale, the boat made a further concerted movement southwards, leaving him a good ten feet short of the bank and more or less in exactly the same spot he’d been in before beginning his effort, but with the boat no longer beneath him...

I think he was more embarrassed than anything else, because we couldn’t stop laughing for the next half hour.

 

[Night Train]

That reminds me of the first time I tried to introduce my Rottie, Mollie, to water. My ex and I stood along side a lake throwing a stick back and forth to each other and occasionally inland and Mollie was quite happily playing a very animated game of fetch. Then without warning I threw the stick out in to the lake while Mollie was inland and she made a run for it.

Mollie did the cartoon dog thing or running on top of the water before suddenly realising there was no more ground underneath her before dropping into the lake. We just screamed with laughter.

She wasn't best pleased but it got her used to water and swimming. It wasn't until she saw other dogs going in for a swim before she would get wet again though.