A Lassie of My Own

Thursday night something amazing happened at my house. 

And when I say amazing I mean hilarious, yet truly remarkable and uncommon. 

When I say uncommon I mean this does not happen often and especially not [yet] in my house.

Not [yet] in my house... 

Until Thursday.

When the something amazing happened.

You may or may not know, I have a dog.

Her name is Ava. She is a little 46/47lb Lab mix.

I love my little girl more than I can express or anyone understands.

She is the best gift I have ever received and has such a huge place in my heart.

She is absolutely adorable and so sweet. 

She is squirrelly, stubborn, and independent. 

She is so caring, especially about her peers in crisis mode (ie. howling or whining dogs). Cue story.

Last night, Ava was outside going about her business, sniffing, running, checking things out. 

After a bit, we began to hear her bark.

This is not uncommon, as Ava will bark at a leaf in the pool. And more recently, our neighbor who likes to do yardwork in the later evening. [I would bark too.]

After several minutes of us doing our own thing inside and not checking on her, she obviously needed our attention.

Suddenly, she jumped on the door, making herself as tall as possible and began barking her aggressive not-so-little bark. 

As soon as we looked at her, she got down on her four legs and ran away.

It was apparent she wanted our attention.

We then went to the door, me calling out 

"What is it Lassie?!" (Clearly, I was joking......)

Once we stepped outside, we looked toward the pool to see her along the side staring intently in - glancing up at us, then back into the pool, then up at us, then back into the pool.

Again, not an uncommon sight. Ava will stand at the side of the pool and stare in at her ball for hours on end, praying someone gets it out for her.

But there was no ball this time. 

We continued to walk to the other side of the pool to stand next to her. 

Finally we saw the problem.

A rather large grasshopper had hopped into the pool. 

He was alive and still. [Probably frozen by fear from the dog barking 2 inches from him.]

My mom walked around the pool to retrieve the pool net, all the while, Ava showed her where it was. 

Then she lead the way back to the grasshopper and watched as mom fished it out of the pool.

She maintained her stare as it was dumped into the bushes.

Since Ava is notorious for eating bugs and being relentless in trying to get something, I told her to leave it alone.

But there was no more urgency in her.

She was fine to walk away at that point.

She walked into the house to return to her ball play or Brinkley play. 

At that point, we knew she didnt want us to get it out for a midday snack.

No, she purely wanted that little guy to be saved. 

It was surprising, but to her it was all in a days work.

My mom wondered if she would do the same thing if a child fell in the pool.

I think she would. 

Add to her character traits:

Nanny
Hero

Lifeguard

911 Dispatcher

Lassie