Melly follows me around everywhere with her cameras. She takes like 12,000 photos per day. When you take that many, some are bound to be good. Of course, if you take that many of me almost all of them are good! That’s a dilemma because we can’t post them all. So Melly and I decided to have a blog post consisting of only photos of me underwater. I don’t mean part of me underwater, I mean all of me, from my whiskers to my toes.
As you can see from the above photo, this is a great idea. I am just as cute underwater as above water.
It would be a better idea if Melly didn’t have the intention of making me look foolish. I’ll tell you something, my swimming and my rolling are not foolish no matter what Melly says and no matter how it looks in these photos. Rolling is my super power and I take my practice very seriously.
In the above photo I am practicing evasive maneuvers which is a very important aspect of rolling. See how Rick’s hand can’t quite reach me?
A somersault is a very challenging rolling maneuver, especially in a pool that’s only a little over four feet deep. Still, Melly thought this photo was funny. She didn’t see this as a clear indication that I need a bigger, deeper pool.
I don’t like to brag but I am really getting good at rolling underwater. I now have very controlled rolls where I can swim for some distance on my side or even upside down.
Don’t you just hear that music from 2001: A Space Odyssey when you see these images of me? It is really like I am waltzing. But this is no more a dance than the moves of a ninja. There is deadly grace.
Sometimes I have to avoid water hazards, which is very good training for me. I need to know where every point of my body is so that I can approach a hazard as closely as I want without touching it. Or in the case above, I can always touch it if that’s what I want. There’s no law against it, you know.
Hoops are a special type of water hazard that is very, very difficult to maneuver through. You can see what a great job I did in the event above though. I didn’t touch that hoop with any part of my body!
I am also capable of swimming right side up and forward. I still need to work on my speed in that area though. Melly keeps saying that Caplin Rous was about 10 times faster than I am. Just give me some time, I’ll get there.