What Dogs Think About When They Swim

The November weather in Hong Kong is still warm, but the sea water has cooled down, so when I walk with my dad at the beach, he just lets me walk around and splash some water, not letting go of my leash as in the summer time when I could swim in the sea in all the ways I want.

It makes me miss summer a bit, but next year's summer is still a winter and a spring away

So, for now I'll just have to settle with reminiscing about this past summer. Back then, I swam in the water almost every day while my dad sat, sometimes laying down, on the beach. He was tanned even though he wore a hat and sometimes used an umbrella. The sun in Hong Kong is really tough in summer! But I'm not afraid of that because, as a dog, I'm protected by a thick layer of fur.

That's what I thought today while walking with my dad.

What do dogs usually think about, you might ask? Oh, quite a bit of our waking time is spent thinking about what yummy food to eat. When sleeping I also think about what yummy food I had thought about eating during the day. We do think about other things too. For example, yesterday when I went to bed I also thought about the time I spent swimming in the sea in the summer, so my arms and legs were moving around in my dreams.

But when you ask, I'm reminded of an essay my dad wrote titled "What I'm Thinking When I Swim". He was inspired by reading Haruki Murakami's book What I Think When I Run. The title of the book may be slightly different, but it's probably similar. And while Haruki Murakami begins his book with a quote from Maugham saying that everything a man does with his shaver when he shaves represents a philosophy, my dad begins his essay by saying that everything a man does when he swims, with his arms outstretched one stroke after another, also represents a philosophy. That's how all the writers in the world get inspired by each other. Speaking of which, I am also inspired and that is why I’m writing this piece of my own which will be entitled "What a Dog Thinks While Swimming", and I would like to start by stating that everything a dog does with its paws up and down also represents a philosophy. But what does this philosophy actually consist of?

First of all, most dogs don't like to swim in the water, just as many people never do. Let me tell you how bad it is: all summer long, it's almost just me the only dog swimming here, while occasionally a few other dogs came and walked around, sometimes on the beach, sometimes in the grass further away, where they're doing nothing more than looking for food, splashing pee or sniffing each other for hormones. Their philosophy is terrestrial, inward looking and conformist. On the contrary, the philosophy of a dog who likes to swim in the ocean is oceanic of course, and risk-taking or adventurous.

 

Secondly, the dogs that love to swim have each their own set of philosophy, different depending on the length of time spent in the water, the elegance of the four paw paddling, and the naturalness of their facial expression, to name but a few. In these aspects, I naturally do well, without deliberately striving for perfection, but since there are so few dogs that go into the water, there is no way to compare, but I think I'm at the top of the list any way.

Why are there so few dogs in the water? Maybe they are afraid of being beaten. There is a Chinese proverb that says, "Beat the dog that falls into the water". The Chinese are really hard on dogs, and in many places they even eat dog meat. My dad says he doesn't go to any places that eat dog meat, like Guangxi province and Korea. However, South Korea has just recently set up a legal scheme to end the habit of eating dog meat within three years. Within this time the factories, stores and restaurants involved in the vicious dog meat line get subsidized to transform to other businesses. So my dad will go to Korea consider their willingness to repent. Back to where we were talking, I didn't feel that it is more likely to get beaten up in the water than on land. On the contrary, when I was in the water, people walking by or swimming in the water waved and smiled at me, apparently feeling I am adorable and extraordinary. Some of the kids ran over to play with me, and I had quite a few playmates as a result. The dogs on land, who were looking for food and peeing, got no attention. In life, you just have to be cheerful, a bit extraverted and fun to get new friends.

Then again, most dogs don't like water sports, and neither do people. My dad also mentioned in his article that in his large residential area of several high rise buildings, there must be a lot of residents, but there are a completely disproportionate number of people who swim in the clubhouse. Similarly, the ocean here is so beautiful but very few dogs come, and even fewer who go in the water. What a waste of resources! This means that most dog parents don't like to bring their dogs here. Or maybe their parents are lazy, or maybe not many people have dogs, or the dog parents are busy, or the dog parents don't like the sea, or they don't care much of their dogs... Come to think of it, I'm one of the special, lucky dogs with a dad who isn't lazy, who has a dog, who isn't too busy, who likes the sea, and who cares about me.

I looked at my dad one day and thought to myself, can't my dad be busier, can he try to make more money, and become more famous. My dad read my little mind right away, and he bent down and said right to my dog face, don't worry, my dear, fame and fortune come and go, but my love for you is forever.

Where can you find a good dog dad like that!

Of course I know my dad has been busy. While he is on the beach watching me swim, he has been also tapping all the time on his computer, writing articles and translating books and at the same time making money from investments. My dad is the best.

Finding my dad lost in working, I sometimes teased him on purpose by doing something scary. You know, there are ropes and floats in the water that mark out a safe area for people to swim, and I loved to bite on that rope in my mouth and float effortlessly. One day, I stayed there this way for a very long time.  My dad felt suspicious and suddenly felt my teeth might have been entangled with the rope, and perhaps I couldn't get rid of it, and probably was drowning, so he took off his shirt and pants and swam over to me in just his shorts, and took the rope right out of my mouth. I smiled at him in a way people rarely recognize except an open mouth. But I continued doing this, and after a few times, he realized I might be just playing, and I could spit the rope out on my own. He wasn't sure though. After a while he came over and signaled me to stop. Pity these poor over concerned parents on earth.

You must be wondering how I know so much and your dog seems to know nothing and silly. Actually, no, your dog understands too, he or she just doesn't say so. How much we dogs know depends on whether or not our parents think about us. This obeys Newton's third law of mechanics, which states that action and reaction forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. How much my dad loves me, I love my dad back. I think about my dad as much as my dad thinks about me. And therefore, what he writes about me is what I'm thinking.

Thus, what a dog thinks about when swimming is communicated well to their dad as long as the channel is reciprocal during the time. When my dad is busy with something else and not thinking about me, of course I have to think about something else too. For example, when I was a kid, my dad took me to a small lake not far from the backyard of our house, where I went swimming for the first time, with a twig in my mouth sometimes, at a leisurely pace. It was a small lake, but a very famous one, as Einstein was said to have been there quite often. Come to think of it, that lake is on the other side of the world. Or I remember once I met a “similar-looking” dog there and we tried to grab a twig from each other, I do not know where that dog is now, if I knew we would part and be at the two sides of the world, I would just have given the dog the twig. It’s not a big deal.

Anyway, to further extent, what a dog thinks about when he or she swims depends on what their dad thinks about, such as philosophy, literature, art, investments, or even poetry and faraway places. By the way, one day my dad was reading a discussion in a WeChat group, and one of them said that not knowing philosophy, literature, art, investments, etc., has no effect on one's life. At that point another guy chimed in and said that he never read anything but the necessary business manuals for work since he graduated, and that he was living just fine. My dad was there listening to their conversation in deep thought.  Knowing what my dad was thinking, I had some thoughts too, I woofed at him and told him that these statements were untrue. If my dad doesn't read and understand these wonderful subjects, how can I? If we didn’t know these things, how could our lives, I mean, his life and my dog's life, have been so much more fun and richer as we believe now? One's abilities, passions, and time are limited, so none can know everything, understand everything, or read everything, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, if one feels proud, justified, even vain about not reading books, that is a bit too much. Not reading is as if some dogs always sniffing around in the grass, but never caring to be in the sea! I am not to saying that I’m more royal like or more dignified somehow just because I have been to the sea this summer, but after all, the sea has something you cannot find in grass, and to try something different can enrich life. What, not useful? Do not talk about what is useful or not, any person and any dog would eventually be dead, no exception, nothing will last forever, useful or not it will come to an end, the most important thing is to see the life scenery more thoroughly, and show a little bit more tenderness toward each other.

When a dog isn't swimming, what he or she thinks certainly also depends on what his or her dad is thinking about. Other than that, the dog mainly thinks about food, good food, and which good looking dog left the smell in the grass, and maybe a few other things.