This post might not be kayaking related but it serves as background as to who we are.
Suzaan and I have two children whom we love dearly. It’s amazing how easy it is to become dependent on their presence and how you miss these quirks when they are not around. Last year we visited Italy and Switzerland for a month and even though it was amazing and awe-inspiring, we often found ourselves thinking “Luna would just love this” or “Can you imagine what Solo would do now”. It’s a bond that may seems rather strange to those who do not share it but to those that do, its hard to live without. Even when they run into the house with dirty feet, or drool on the couch, or jump up against the kitchen counter, or beg for food, or harass the postman, we still love them and always will.
Luna & Solo
Luna is the elder and ironically also the shorter of the two. She would be considered the higher ranking member of the K9 section of our pack. Words like playful, inquisitive, focused and busy describe her character well. We think she may have a slight obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to playing ball, but it doesn’t seem to have a detrimental effect on her everyday quality life. Give Luna a opposable thumb and she would probably find the solution to the world’s problems. Seriously though, she is rather intelligent and capable of some rather interesting feats. On the night we collected her from the breeders, she howled at the full moon while we were driving to her new home, and hence the name Luna(Italian for moon).
Solo is considered the strapping young lad. People always complement him on his stature and appearance. But what few people actually know, Solo is more human than many humans. When Solo wants to sleep, he finds a pillow for his head, when Solo doesn’t appreciate something, he tells you outright by making some of the strangest sounds imaginable. He is a real attention seeker and often walks up to a person and places his big head on your lap and looks at you with those eyes which subtly demands to be touched. Come night time, he has to spend his customary 30 minutes lying on the bed between Suz and myself. It’s a fact of life, deal with it. Solo already had his name when he became a member of our family and his name actually suites him very well. He is one of a kind.
Solo
Fortunately Luna and Solo share our passion for the sea. It’s probably because they have been exposed to the beach from a young age as we made a point of taking them there often. But still, to this day, they go absolutely ballistic when we get anywhere near the sea and any other water for that matter. The only way to successfully control them on the beach is with a ball in hand. The ball becomes the object of desire and the everything else fades into the background.
We have often thought of how we could incorporate them into our paddling adventures, but unfortunately it’s not feasible as they are not the smallest of dogs and I doubt whether they will just sit on a platform and get towed around.
I think they understand already, that when the boats get loaded onto the car, and the gear gets packed in the boot, mommy and daddy are going to go play with their ball now.