Ever since moving away from the lake-size pond behind the old house, Molly has not had any opportunity to swim. But there must be a faint memory of her favorite activity lodged somewhere in her brain, because when we asked if she wanted to go for a swim, her ears perked up and she looked at us eagerly.

She shoved past us in order to jump in the car. She didn’t want to wait for us to change our minds.

When we arrived, we discovered that to get to the dog pond, we had to walk through the dog park. Past dogs. Big dogs. This didn’t go over too well with our elderly pup who is struck with fear of other dogs. But once she saw the open water, her fear faded.

She was the happiest I’ve seen her in a long time, which made me happy. If we hadn’t called her to shore for occasional breaks, I do believe she would have swum until she drowned.

Why was it her last swim, you ask? A couple days after feeling on top of the world, she began itching terribly–to the point where tufts of hair were coming out, leaving bald spots all over. There were some internal issues as well, that made us realize she’s unfortunately getting too old to bounce back from youthful activities such as swimming. But we were glad she had one last happy memory in the water.