Ocean Swimmer

Ballou, my Doberwoman of an age she does not disclose to me, still surprises me. For all the time she has accompanied me on beach walks, she has never swam past the breakers after tennis balls or sticks. Not like my previous marine dobie, Bando.

I never doubted her courage or pluck. I just sensed she was spooked as soon as she encountered the surf's under-tow. I knew she knew she could swim: she had proven that in the flat water of the harbor on many occasions.

But the truly unique thing about Ballou is that she goes absolutely medieval over hang-gliders and kite-boarders. Whenever she sees them, and her eyes are always scanning the horizon looking for them, she enters some kind of zone that totally excludes me. It's not an exaggeration to describe it as a jump-out-of-a-window-of-a-moving-car zone.

In the afternoon a week ago, we hit the beach at the bottom of the 84 steps at Shoreline Park. There was one kite-boarder off the beach between the breakwater and Ledbetter. Ballou was gone in a flash. "She always comes back," I said to myself. Well, she peeked back around the point once and then permanently disappeared. I resolved to trudge down to the breakwater, because I didn't want SB Animal-Control to tranquilize and arrest her.

No chance of that, I discovered when I got there. She was out in the water like a speck, closer to the swim buoys than shore: an ocean swimmer, totally! Dragging her back to my car at Shoreline was exhausting. But I returned with a smile of pride.