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The Dat!

A couple of weeks ago mom and I headed up to Jackson, NH to attend the annual Wildquack Duck River Festival. Lots of people go to this festival in the park to watch little toy rubber duckies swim down the Wildcat River. The duckies are numbered and the owners of the duckies get prizes depending on how they finish. I was not allowed to help them although it seemed silly since all the 2-legged kids were helping them down the stream, mom thought I might steal one and take it home and that wouldn’t be fair to the duck’s owner.

Aside from this little detail, it was really a great day. There were tons of kids to play with, kids love to play Frisbee and so do I, we get along quite well and the river was close by -a perfect park always has a body of water right next to it so you can cool off when ever you need to. We played all day long and at the end when mom was ready to go, we walked down to a quiet bend in the river where I could really swim before we went home.

As we got closer there were what appeared to be 2 dogs, a larger one swimming and a small one on a leash splashing around near the rivers edge. The big dog came and greeted me and we went running up to the small dog… but wait… this was no dog. This was a CAT! A cat on a leash splashing in the river! Now you can imagine my surprise, and skid to a stop when I realized what it was. I have much respect for cats, you never can tell when they have decided they don’t want you to sniff them anymore and they have very sharp claws and make scary hissing noises when they don’t like you. So, as usual, I backed away slowly and watched this cat play in the water.

Her mom and dad told me that her name was Gracie and that she had liked to play in the water ever since they could remember and she liked dogs. I found that hard to believe since any cat that has come to daycare and had to take a bath most certainly had never liked the water and most certainly didn’t like me. But Gracie did really like me she sniffed me nicely and then went back to splashing. Gracie was my favorite type of cat, the ones that could be described as Dats. Dats are the name my Grammy has given cats that do dog-like things, they play fetch and follow you on your daily walks. They can be found curled up with your dog, sharing a water bowl with said dog or learning how to sit, stay and lay down just like us. They’re almost perfect – like me!

Do you have a special Dat in your life?