I'm not sure if you all heard this tale, but it speaks to the amazing ability of animals to survive. This story is about a dog, a dinghy and a dingbat.
Three guys took off fishing early one morning off the coast of Cape Lookout (for those of you who aren't familiar, it's off the coast of North Carolina). The men, upon reaching open water, realized the fishing wasn't going to be quite what they hoped for. With swells of six to seven feet, they thought it best to turn back. About halfway to shore, with no boats or land in sight, they came across one of the largest creatures they'd ever seen at sea. No, it wasn't the coveted bluefin, rather a four-legged friend . . . Jake the yellow lab. While we may be accustomed to seeing yellow labs paddle about in the water, seeing them in water more than one mile offshore is not the norm.
Fast forward . . . after much coaxing and finally lassoing Jake with a mooring line, they pulled the dog on board. Although incredibly weak and disoriented -- who knows how long that poor dog was out there, especially given there were no boats in sight -- Jake seemed to be okay. The fishermen immediately radioed the coast guard to see if there had been any reports of a missing dog. As there were no reports, the three men went in search of Jake's owner.
The closest boat was more than a mile and half away and was no help. The next boat they found was a cabin cruiser anchored in the sound. The woman on board said the dog looked like her husband's dog Jake. Apparently her husband and a friend had gone out fishing and taken the dog with them. Best guess was that they left Jake in one boat while taking their dinghy in the shallow marsh water. Jake either got hot and decided to go for a swim, was answering the call of nature, or went to find his owner - no one really knows.
Thanks to the three fishermen, Jake was reunited with his parents. However, as I said in the beginning, this is a story about a dog -- Jake; a dinghy -- the mode of transport; and a dingbat -- the irresponsible pet owner who left his dog alone in a boat in the middle of open water.
The moral of the story is no matter how much you love your dog and want to have them with you at all cost, think about what that cost might be. In this case it could have been Jake's life.
Thank God for happy endings.
Signing off
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