Colby May Not Be Perfect, But He Is My Hero

Since this previous post, I have come to accept that my dog isn't perfect. Every now and then I am reminded of his flaws, like the other day when he decided to relieve himself on a puppy pad, and then tear the puppy pad to shreds while I was at work. Or how he insists on urinating on this one particular plant in my back yard to the point where the plant, and every plant around it, have now officially bit the dust. Or how he ran up and down my flower bed along the fence in order to spy on my neighbors, crushing every plant in his way (but the verdict is still out on this one...I have a hard time believing my dog would do something so un-perfect).

But while Colby is not perfect, this afternoon he officially became my hero. I was enjoying a nice, peaceful afternoon laying in my pool. The sun was out, I was getting a tan, and I was enjoying a nice nap. Colby was inside enjoying the A/C. Life was good for both of us. For whatever reason, Colby decided to come outside and join me, and the sound of the doggy door woke me up. I noticed that Colby stopped by one of the flower beds about 20 feet from where I was laying in the pool, and he seemed REALLY interested in something in the flower bed. Usually when he is REALLY interested in something, it's never good. So I sat up to try to figure out what he was looking at, and about that time the longest snake I've ever seen (okay, it was probably just about 3 feet long...but does it really matter?!) came slithering out of the flower bed, and it was headed toward the pool. I froze, thinking that maybe if I was completely still I would be invisible to the snake and it would go the other way. That snake wasn't slowly slithering--it was almost like it was jumping toward the pool at rocket speed. When the snake was about a foot from the pool and looked like he was about to jump in, I knew it was time to take action. I jumped out of the pool, screamed in such a high pitch that if I weren't so preoccupied with trying to save my life I would have been embarrassed (sorry I made fun of you for screaming "like a girl" that time, Gary...now I totally understand), and ran for my life toward the house. I assumed Colby would run after me to seek shelter in the house. But, no, my fearless dog chased after the snake and ran him out of our yard. While I appreciated his efforts to protect me from the evil snake, I was worried about his safety and started yelling at him to come inside. He just looked at me in disgust that I would make such a suggestion when there was such an important job to be done outside. Colby succeeding in chasing the snake out of the yard, and then strolled inside and took a nap. I, on the other hand, was shaking uncontrollably, while still dripping wet from being in the pool. I called my mom and told her what had just happened. After hearing the story, she said that she would fully support me if I decided to put my house on the market. She also suggested that I go to the E.R. and get a valium (I guess I was pretty shaken up when I talked to her). I asked her if she thought snakes could crawl through doggy doors, and she immediately said she would google it, and hung up the phone. I'm still pretty traumatized, and it's going to take me a while before I build up the courage to walk out into my back yard again. At some point I will have to go out there and empty the pool and get my towel. Maybe in a few weeks.

Colby is my hero. He was there to alert me to danger, and then he protected me from that evil snake. All in a day's work for the Super-Dog.