I am not an animal person. Although, for the first time in my life, I’m happy to report I am at a point where my sister Lisa can bring her beloved Dachshund, Ollie, to my house, overnight, and I’m comfortable enough to actually fall asleep. That’s a milestone for me. And another friend has a chihuahua named Sammy that I’m kind of used to. Progress.
That’s not to say that I can’t appreciate excellence in other species. Every once in a while I see something and think “What a magnificent animal” or “Wow! God really knew what He was doing there” or “I can’t believe I just saw that!”
Last week, I had a day like that. Randy and I, and some new friends, Michele and her husband Paul, took a water taxi to a restaurant on an island just off the coast of the Cape Haze peninsula. We had a nice lunch, served by a terrific waitress with the unique and unusual first name of Pegin. As we were waiting at the dock for the return taxi ride, we spotted a couple of dolphins playing in the water just off the dock. Dolphin sightings are almost always cause for excitement, and people (even me) count themselves lucky when they catch even a small glimpse of them cavorting in their natural environment.
The water taxi arrived. Captain Dave welcomed us aboard and started telling stories about dolphins and other water adventures he sees daily. He said, “watch this” and backed the boat up near the dolphins and then applied near full throttle. He got that boat up on plane quickly and had a decent wake trailing the boat. He told me to get my camera out. Good thing I listened to him.
Before long we saw that the dolphins had started following the wake of the boat. I unsuccessfully tried to take a picture or two and realized (duh!) I can video this! (Understand, I am not one of those people who live to record my life. I rarely think of photos, let alone videos.) Luckily, I do have a lot of experience with boats and my sea legs still work well. I stood and filmed for about 7 minutes as the boat raced through the water. A most delightful 7 minutes of my life! The dolphins hung with us and provided a better show than if we’d paid $118.99 admission to Sea World Orlando (yup, that’s what it costs these days).
I edited the video down to the best 3 minutes and posted it on my YouTube channel. Even 3 minutes creates a file too large to share on social media. Here’s the link to the whole video.
I know there are folks who love animals more than people. And some of those aren’t shy about telling you so. I’m fine with that. Sorry I don’t share that interest with you. Different strokes for different folks and all that. Yet, I’m blessed to sometimes just be able to revel in the beauty, magnificence, uniqueness, and wonder of the living, breathing creatures God made. And I do. As long as I don’t have to get up close and personal with them.
P.S. Cynophobia is the fear of dogs. I didn’t know, until the very minute I wrote this (and looked up fear of dogs looking for a synonym), that fear of dogs has an official phobia name. Good thing I didn’t know. I might have grown up thinking I was handicapped, or part of a protected group, or something. Hmmmm, come to think of it, maybe that’s not so bad. I might be eligible for some sort of disability. I’ll have to check. 😉
P.P.S. In case you missed it above, my talented new friend Michele has her own blog, linked again here. We met when she designed the kitchen and bathroom remodel in our Florida house and we’ve become writing buddies as well as pals. Michele was the primary inspiration for me and Randy to start our own blogs here in Florida. Give her a read.
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