German ShepHerds are an interesting breed of dog.

Certainly wHip-smart.

Sometimes, scarily so.

Also, quite funny in that ‘sure- I- look- like- I- could- take- you- out- in- one- bite- but- I-just- got- myself- stuck- in- the- sofa‘ sort of way

Case in point:

Last year, I did a post about holding out for a hero, in which our beloved, round and yellow Fred offered gifts to the Gods of the patio fire pit and made all right with the world again (after the ShepHerds forgot that the fire pit wasn’t new (it had been there for, like, nine years) and proceeded to make a big fat hairy and scary deal about it showing up out of nowhere).

Well, now Fred and the Old Yankee Man are partners-in-crime, on a new adventure, and this leaves the ShepHerds on their own when new things ‘suddenly‘ appear in their territory.

Which leads me to the Big Blue Puddle.

We have a pool.

Have had a pool since 2004, when we moved into the Disposable Shack.

It’s big, and on the side of the house.

You can’t really miss it.

But apparently…

If you are a German ShepHerd, you can.

So this morning, I was outside, going to tend to it, and asked the ShepHerds if they wanted to come along and…

Queue theme from Hawaii Five-O…

Yes, they got all official very quickly.

Oh! In case you are wondering, that thing in the bottom left corner is the automatic vacuum cleaner. It is the closest I will ever come to having a Swedish Pool Boy, so I named him Sven.

I want to remind you that the ShepHerds have been in the pool area many times, and – in years past – Fred would just walk in and take the steps down into the pool and swim around.  But now since Fred isn’t here, this is clearly new territory!

Like all good police teams, they started by canvassing the area…

And, once an area was ‘clear’, they separated to cover more ground…

And then, they were ready to explore the most dangerous areas… They started with the Small Blue Puddle…

I’m pretty sure I heard Marshal asking Blaze if she had ever seen anything like this…

And she said, ‘no’.

But then they turned around and….

So the Partners, without calling for backup, explored and explored for, like, an hour…

That thing in Blaze’s mouth is a floaty toy.

Of note is that this specific floaty toy was played with a lot last year by both ShepHerds, who would jump right into the pool (er… Big Blue Puddle) to go get said toy.

Today Blaze gingerly plucked it from water’s edge and just carried it around, because why take any chances (which, I assume, is what they learned in the Academy).

So today was not a swimming day as, clearly, the Big Blue Puddle is brand new and needs some serious exploring.

And I am wishing a certain, unlikely hero was here to show them the way…

But it was not to be.

So the ShepHerds have returned to their Academy training, on dry ground.

We’re going to go back to some easier, and basic-ier training, and slowly work our way up to the advanced, Big Blue Puddle in the days ahead…

Until then…

Thanks for readin’.

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