Matey Continues to Earn His Name
14 April 2015 | Texarkana, Texas
Jill
We all have one last push in Jamie’s residency. She takes the national boards on Wednesday, so she’s been doing a lot of studying and I’ve spent a lot of time with Adler. Sunday Adler was with his Dad, so Bud and I had a free day. Bud’s been golfing a lot, but between my feet and continuing issues with planar fasciitis and watching Adler I haven’t been able to do much. Bud suggested that we go somewhere where he could fish on shore and keep Matey and I could kayak. I happily agreed, but said I’d like to try to take Matey in the kayak.
I chose Thomas Lake Park. It’s a primitive park we visited our first summer here. It has a small lake formed on Thomas Creek, one of the many tributaries to the Sulphur River and Wright Patman Lake. It’s pretty remote, at the end of a dirt road with no through traffic, so Matey could be off leash while we were there. Matey wandered around while Bud helped me get the kayak set up. Since it’s inflatable and has an air mattress for a floor we put Matey’s car rug and a towel in the front compartment. We put the forward seat in the middle position and I sat in the back to paddle. It cramped my position a little, but not too much since I could push the bottom of the middle seat forward, The back of that seat made a barrier that kept Matey in place. I called Matey over to me and put his life jacket on him. He’s not crazy about that, but accepts it as sweetly as he endures all the weird things humans do to him (like giving him baths and cutting his hair). I clipped his leash to the hook on the life jacket in case he decided to take a swim.
I needn’t have worried. In typical Matey fashion he sat quiet and alert in the front of the kayak as I paddled toward one end of the long, thin lake. We went maybe a half-mile until the lake got narrow and we were coming up on a fisherman in a small boat. When I turned around and headed back Matey watched for a while and then lay down in the kayak. He found if he lay facing back he could still see out so adopted that position. He followed this procedure as we went past our starting point and went to the other end of the lake. We saw some nice birds (maybe even an eagle, it was too big for a hawk and seemed too brown for a vulture) and I enjoyed the quiet with only birdcalls and woodpecker knocks to break the silence. Matey, if not as ecstatic as he is when crashing through the brush, seemed content. After about an hour I came back to shore. Matey waited until Bud pulled the bow up the boat ramp and we told him he could go to disembark. Once again he proved himself an excellent companion, “me best mate”.