Birthday swim

Scout turned nine end of July and to celebrate we took him down to the lake for a swim, possibly his favorite pastime e-v-e-r. The beach was packed but fortunately this area off to the side doesn't get much use and makes a perfect "dog" swimming area :) It's nearly impossible to get him out of the water once he's in, and with each toss and retrieval of the bright green tennis ball, he'll stay further and further back in the water - and simply expect us to wade in to collect the ball where he's left it floating sort of near shore. He is a smart one ... keeping just enough distance to ensure we can't quite reach him in order to coerce him out of the water when it's time to go home. The funny thing is, he acts very nonchalant about it. But we know he's always watching us out of the corner of his eye. In this case, after a nice long swim and many, many, tosses of the tennis ball, it took a few cookies to get him out. I think he'd stay in there all day if he could. I love that something so simple absolutely makes his day. Happy Birthday sweet dog.