Down at Barton springs

Today being fathers day, we decided it best to avoid ANY resturants at all, so we took the nature route for the day. We decided to drive down to Barton Springs. It is our second time going there. That being said, we did not bring Squirt.
Barton springs is a lazy river that you can swim in and take your dogs in so that they can swim also. It is lined by numerous bike/running trails, and the water is so clear that you can see the mossy bottom. If you are standing far away, the water looks turqoise. Very pretty.
Not for Squirt. Last time we took him, we thought he might enjoy getting cooled down, but he did not and would not go into the river on his own. So I picked him up, and carried him out to the center where there was a little island of rocks. Mabye about a foot from it, I set him down in the water. I stood back so he would swim towards the rocks, and not towards me. You would think, from some sort of survival instinct, dogs would know how to swim. Nope. Not squirt. All 4 of his legs were going, and they were not syncronized, so he was just barely managing to stay above water. There was no way he was getting to those rocks. After a couple seconds, he managed to move a couple of inches, and I said, "Good boy, squirt! Keep going!"
Mistake #1.
Instead of going just a little bit further, he clumsly turned around, and headed for me. When he reached me, he scratched the shit out of my legs tring to get me to pick him up.
I picked him up out of the water, and he was shaking all over. Fear? Adreniline? Anger? Who knows. I carried him for a little bit, but I wanted to swim too, so I set him on the little islands of rocks. The minnute I did, he was whinning, and when I started to go away, he started howling!!!
Needless to say, I spent the rest of my time in the river with a little, soking wet, chicken-of-a-dog in my arms.
When Matt and Kody were good to get out, I made my way over to the edge to get out. As I was getting out, I noticed I had scratches all over my legs, stomach, and perminent claw marks in my shoulder where squirt was hangnign on for dear life. Yup, I was bleeding. I wasn't the only one to notice. A kyaker came over and said,"Hey, you might want to check yourself for leeches. There are some in this river."
Of coarse there was.

So today, we went without squirt, but it was a lot less entertaining.