Skipper’s Post:
I have a lot of things to blog about. I have fallen way, way, way behind. But you’ve got to start if you’re going to catch up. I’m starting with an update on my pool situation. If you’ve been reading my blog for the past year, you’ll know that this has been a long term problem with serious disagreements between me and MelT. Those are now resolved.
I hate to admit it, but MelT was right, the pool is a good thing. In fact, it’s a very good thing. And not just the water part, there is delicious grass growing on every side! Even so, grass is grass, but this pool is like no water I have ever seen.
At first I didn’t want to go in by myself. I’m sure you humans know that deep water is scary. I mean you don’t even have webbed toes, it’s amazing you can swim at all! As you can see in the photo above, I was braver than my friend Nancy. Even with me to protect her, she was still too afraid to get in. I like her because she is smart. A coward, but a smart coward. (By the way, cowardice is a highly valued trait among capybaras.)
It didn’t take me long to realize that I can stand up in the water. In fact, there is no place too deep for me to stand on my hind tippy-toes. That takes some of the fear out of it.
Then I learned out to capybara paddle. That’s what my predecessor, Garibaldi Rous, referred to as surface swimming.
I am now an expert at surface swimming. I can keep that up for several feet and maybe a whole 30 seconds at this point. That’s probably a world record.
I might be slightly better at submerged swimming. MelT says I should be able to stay under for 5 minutes! Ha! She’s a bit of a (bad) joker. I’d like to see her stay under for 5 minutes. I’ll bet she can’t even beat my 15 second record!
I’m much faster doing submerged swimming than I am doing surface swimming. I get better use of my super-webbed hind feet. I’m as fast in the water as a bird is in the air!
I made an important discovery! There are things called “noodles.” They float.They can be dangerous but, if properly trained, very useful. I have two videos about them that you simply must see.
The video above shows a noodle training session. It’s pretty graphic so you might want to make any kids leave the room.
That video shows how useful a trained noodle can be. Surface swimming is so tiring but even MelT can stay afloat if I loan her one of my trained noodles. You can see Pinky had a difficult training session. She’s got quite a few scares form it.
Did you like my blog? Do you like swimming? Do you have your own noodles? Which of my blog photos do you like the best? Did you know that I LOVE hearing from my readers? Post a comment to let me know what you think!
