Ziva’s Excellent Adventure
by Bruce Skakle (bigkid)

We are so lucky to live in Stockton Springs, Maine. The Penobscot River is within walking distance of our home and there is a beautiful sandy beach where we take our dogs. The town has placed benches just above the high tide line and we can sit there and the dogs can run and swim and explore the shoreline.

One day, when Ziva was still quite small, I took her to the beach and she ran down to the water’s edge and began playing with the clamshells the seagulls had dropped in the sand.

Sitting on one of the benches were a man and a woman, probably in their seventies, and they asked what kind of dog Ziva was. I explained that she was a Golden Retriever and she loved the water. Then the gentleman asked if I had a camera. I told him I usually bring mine but had left it home that morning. He then said to his wife that there was no way to get to his car to get his camera in time. I turned around to see what he wanted to photograph.

He said, “I’ve been coming here all summer and have taken pictures of eagles, ospreys, loons, sailboats, clouds and about everything you can think of but I’m going to miss this shot.”

Ziva was about 20 feet from shore swimming with a harbor seal pup and its mother. The seal pup was twice the size of Ziva and the mother seal was huge in comparison. I ran to the water and started calling Ziva to come back to shore. Where she was, the water is about 15 feet deep and I’m not a good swimmer. We watched as the seal pup would nudge Ziva and Ziva would swim after the seal pup. You could tell the mother seal was watching this play closely and she would get within 2 feet of Ziva. All I could think of is Ziva would make a nice little snack if that seal is hungry. I kept calling her and she finally turned and swam toward shore. The seal pup followed her to within 3 feet of shore and that’s when the mother seal decided her baby must have been too close to us. She was making all sorts of noises and swimming toward her pup. Ziva plunged right back into the water and swam out to the seal pup but the pup turned and swam away. In an instant they were gone. The whole thing lasted about 10 minutes and we all just stood there not believing what we had just seen. The woman said it was the highlight of her summer.

Ziva still runs to the water’s edge and stares out over the river looking for anything that might come and play with her. Usually it’s a just a seagull or a log floating by. She can’t be like a normal dog and fetch a tennis ball, no… she has to go after sea creatures.