Fuzzy the Wonder Dog
28 February 2011 | Big Major's Spot, Exumas, Bahamas
Jill
Fuzzy the Wonder Dog
Sunday was a quiet day. We hung around the boat and went in to the beach a few times. I was thinking of taking my shampoo and soap to the beach and cleaning up there, but when we went to leave there were people at both beaches, so I didn’t. As it turned out, the folks left one beach before we got there, so we again had the beach to ourselves. I decided not to wash in the water at the boat. There are so many boats here it just feels strange. Yesterday afternoon there were 33 sailboats and 10 powerboats anchored here.
Today started quietly. We decided to run the generator, heat some water, vacuum the boat and charge up the batteries. The wind had picked up again, so the batteries didn’t actually need to be charged. But we’re going in to get water in the tanks tomorrow, so we decided to heat the water and splurge by taking freshwater showers.
We had invited some other folks we met over for dinner, Gord and Marilyn from s/v Madison. Gord is from St. Catherines, and Marilyn is from Boston, NY. They came a bit after 3 and we were sitting in the cockpit talking. I went below to get Marilyn some wine. Fuzzy was sitting on the cockpit seat in front of the open companionway. All of a sudden I heard a thump and looked over and Fuzzy was on the floor in the salon. They said he just suddenly jumped down the companionway steps. He hit on the rug at the bottom of the steps and then kind of rolled down the next little step to the rug in the salon. That’s about 8 feet! I was sure he had broken legs, broken ribs or internal injuries. He didn’t make a sound. I felt him all over; I couldn’t find anything wrong. I gave him a baby aspirin, figuring he was going to be sore somewhere. We all sat up in the cockpit for another half hour or so, I kept an eye on Fuzzy and came down to check him again several times, but he seemed fine. By the time we were ready to eat, I fixed him his supper and he was acting just as always.
After a really nice supper and a nice visit, Gord and Marilyn took off and Bud and I took Fuzzy in for his evening beach visit. He sat on my lap as he now does on dingy rides, perfectly at ease as we zipped over to the beach up on plane. We still don’t know what possessed him to launch himself into the companionway or how he managed to fall 8 feet with apparently no injuries, especially since he’s just 2 months shy of 15 years old! We just hope he won’t try it again.