In the weeks since we’ve lost Piper, Ivy and I have shared Piper stories every time she comes to me teary eyed saying she misses Piper. When it’s Ivy’s turn to share a story, she tells about when she snuck up on an unsuspecting Piper in the kitchen. Ivy then crawled up on a chair and climbed onto Pipers back while Piper stood and looked at me cooking dinner with eyes that said, “Seriously?”. I told Piper to sit, which she did. Piper’s problem was solved, and Ivy thought the slide down Pipers back was hilarious. One of my recent favorite stories of the late, great Piper is one that I always meant to share and never had a chance to. So in honor of Piper, who would actually hate the fact that I’m laughing at her, here is what was possibly one of Piper’s most embarrassing moments:

First off you should know that while Piper loved the water she never liked to swim. In fact, for all the time she spent on and around water I only remember her swimming four times. Once was when she dumped us out of a canoe, another was when she slid off the end of a dock, once when she accidentally ran out too deep in the water and one time when she was chasing a pheasant over a water filled ditch (I’m guessing she didn’t know how deep it was). Swimming was not a voluntary activity for Piper. What she did love was running and splashing in the shallow water.  Piper would do one of two things. Either run gigantic crazy circles that were half on land half in water or she would wait just out far enough that she could stand but the other dogs couldn’t and then jump on them when they came by. I loved my dog, I miss my dog, but my dog was undeniably a butt-head at times.

Piper waiting to jump on Storm at the Shack

On to my story –  this fall I was walking with my friend Jessie and all five of our dogs on some public hunting ground that Bad Fish Creek runs through. Bad Fish Creek at that place and time was no more than 15 feet or so of running water with an equal sized area of very shallow slow moving water on our side of the creek. The problem was that the shallow water seemed to be about 5 inches of water on top of 10 inches of thick black mud. We justified getting the dogs messy by walking them back through the fields where they’d be mostly dried off and mud free by the time we packed them all in the vehicle. (Have you ever seen a Great Dane a large Lab mix, a Wimeranier, a Pudlepointer and a Britney puppy all in the back of a station wagon? It was like a clown car for dogs!) On this particular day Piper was feeling especially good, we had recently got her arthritis under control and boy was she excited to see the water! So excited she started doing her gigantic crazy circles. The circles were a little more impressive than normals since the bank on the side of the creek was quite steep and covered with long grass. She’d run down jump into the water and then have to actually  jump back up on the bank to do it again. I was watching her enjoy herself when on her way into the water both front legs got caught up in the long grass. With the amount of momentum that she already had going Piper continued to fly toward the water… nose first.  Unable to recover her footing whatsoever she splashed into the water nose first and slid on her chest a foot or two before she was able to get her legs back under her and stand up. By this time, sensitive dog owner that I am, I was already laughing, but when she stood up and looked at me I completely lost it. Piper had sunk into the mud up over her eyes to the tops of her ears. When she stood up she was completely black from the top of her head down to her feet.  Her white eyes were startling as she looked out of her black face, and while I think I could fairly accurately translate the look that she gave Jessie and I, this is a family blog and it wouldn’t be appropriate.  When she was done giving us a her death glare and we had regained control of the laughter and dried our tears. Piper made up for the embarrassment by jumping on a few of the other dogs. Which, while unfortunate for those squashed under her, it did help get some of the mud off. Only some of it though, there was enough left that she required a bath when we got home (except that she only took showers, but that’s a different story) and we got another disgusted look from her as we laughed all over again telling John about it.

I can still picture it, and no doubt if Piper were still here today she’d see me laughing at her, crawl up on her couch, heave a big sigh, and then attempt to ignore me. Yup, I do miss that dog!