Safety First!

"For crying out loud, seriously???"

I can't help it, every time I see this picture I crack up.  If you have a second, click on the picture to really get the full "effect". Fred pretty much didn't move almost the entire time he was wearing it. As you will notice in the following pictures. He basically didn't know how...

I had to move around him to get all the angles...

"why me?"

"Hmmm, now what?"

After I took the pictures above, I went up the steps there and sat in a chair to see how Fred was going to do in his new digs. He stood there for quite some time, but he really wanted to come up those steps to be with me. His first attempt didn't go so well. I'm not sure, but I think he was trying to jump over that chin piece as he was going to come up the steps. As he got to the first step, he did some sort of jump, rear maneuver and almost fell over backwards. He thought about this for a few seconds, tilted his head this way and that, and V E R Y carefully stepped up the 3 steps over to me, sat down and gave me the stink eye.

"I'm stuck"

He couldn't get off the couch either.

I realize I need to adjust the chin strap, just a "tad".  Other than that it's a good fit all around.

Anyway, one of the reasons I decided Fred needed this is because of what Dom had written about with her experiences with her dog Herbie . She mentioned that Herbie sinks, and since I've never really tested Fred on his swimming capabilities yet, it's better to be safe than sorry. I am not sure Fred feels the same way. Also, on the Fourth of July, we had the opportunity to spend some time with my daughter and her friends on the river in a small fishing boat. It was a little warm and Fred was panting pretty good, so her friend picked up Fred and dipped him in the water. It was a very quick in and out, but I have to admit, it did make me a bit nervous. Fred can be pretty slippery when he's wet.

After said dunking...

He didn't seem to mind, really, and he ended up having a pretty good time, we both did. It was then that I thought a life jacket would have come in handy, the current was pretty swift where we were and the rivers were still running quite high.

Fred with my daughter Molly and her friend. As you can see her friend was very much interested in his fishing rod at the time, quite the talker too...not.

A couple of weeks after that, Fred and I went camping on the Mollala river for one night. Our camp spot wasn't very near the water, and it was quite a hike to get to the river from where we were camped. When we finally managed to get to the river, it was really running fast and Fred was getting too close to it for my comfort. The rocks that we had to walk on were about the size of volley balls, round and smooth and they were very unsteady. So was I and so was Fred. Of course the fact that I was wearing thongs for footwear didn't help much. I didn't get pictures of the river, I was too busy worrying about staying upright and keeping an eye on Fred. I did get a few pictures of the campsite.

My tent is the one in the back.

That's Fred's blanket on the ground. It's supposed to be white...

The fire that never really ever burned, it just smoldered and blew ashes everywhere.

View from the camp site, no river, just rocks.

I'm not going to totally get into it here, but suffice to say the camping trip was a bust for many, many reasons and Fred and I were out of there by first light. I was home by 9:00 in the morning.

Let's just say, the person that had all the gear for camping, for example, fire starting material, firewood, food, stove, beverages, lights, bug repellent, and on and on, locked his keys in his truck as soon as he arrived, and all of the camping gear, and it was getting dark...That was the beginning of the end.

Anyway, Fred is now the new owner of a life jacket. Now I need someone to take me out on the water. We need to field test it...