I hope everyone has been enjoying this beautiful summer weather lately! I have certainly been making sure I get some time outside everyday. Having said that, I really wanted to share with you guys something rather heartfelt and amazing that happened yesterday.
So, in the summer time, some friends of mine take their boat out on Lake St. Clair on Tuesdays, and usually round up a group to accompany them. Yesterday was my first time on the water this year, and it was a super hot, beautiful day. My friend Jason, and owner of the boat, has a 15 year old black lab that is a staple on the boat, and once you meet him, it becomes quite apparent that AJ and Jason are best friends and extremely important to each other. I hope you’re all wondering what AJ stands for, because it’s an abbreviation for “Action Jackson,” and yesterday he really lived up to his name. After taking the boat out for about an hour and doing some flips into the water, we came back near the dock to grab a friend of ours. We took off once again to continue enjoying ourselves when about 20 minutes later I hear Jason loudly ask, “Where is AJ?” We all instantly began searching the entire boat, which is huge, when it started to set in that AJ was gone… he was nowhere to be found. How could this happen? We re-traced our steps, brought up the last time anyone saw him, circled back through our path on the lake, called friends at the dock to see if he jumped off there, and we even sent people out on a little “dingy” boat to search near rocks and anywhere else we had been. Nothing… Now, the boat is big, and slow, and doesn’t rock back and forth vigorously, but AJ is old, has a heart murmur, and is very weak and frail. After about an hour or so of searching and racking our brains, we started to give up…. And we all kind of started to hurtfully accept that AJ somehow fell in the water, and was gone. Out of options, we sat down, started to grill some food, and unexpectedly Jason received a phone call from his sister, saying that animal control had found his dog, and they were trying to contact him. He called them back and asked, “Is he alive?” ACTION “MOTHER FLIPPIN” JACKSON was alive. And found. This 15 year old dog who had been shot TWICE before in his life, swam a mile to selfridge air base, when a boat lured him in with a piece of cheese and pulled him aboard. I can’t even swim a mile….. and he is quadruple my age (in dog years). Needless to say Jason and his girlfriend Chelsea rushed over to the animal hospital, brought him back and we celebrated and fed AJ a nice cheeseburger and sausage off the grill. We all went through a roller coaster of emotions that day, but I am so glad I was there with everyone, and to witness this miracle dog make it home safely.
Do you guys have any crazy dog stories?! Any crazy boating stories? I want to hear them all. Comment on this post on Facebook or Twitter to share them with me.
I hope you all have an awesome and safe week everybody.
XOXO Kara