On Sunday, Catie brought them to Edisto and we took them out on the boat. It was really a lot of fun. It was their first time to America and they were making their way down the coast. They started in NYC where George (in purple) had been living for the past few months doing an internship. They've made their way all the way down the Eastern US and are now currently making their way through Central America. They will be in Central America for 5 weeks. I swear the Europeans know how to travel. They don't do anything half way.While we were on the boat, the three guys were in awe over the dolphins. And I must say that, while I see them all the time in the rivers, the dolphins were exceptionally close to the boat. And there were so many of them. So that was a lot of fun and I was glad we got to show those guys the coast.
2. The Battle of the Marsh
Okay, the second major event....this involved the smallest dog with the biggest attitude and a raccoon! Not a good match up, at all. I don't know what you know about raccoons, but they are super bad news. Mean as, well, as a raccoon. And even meaner in the water, which is precisely where this tussle took place.
This is the dog....Irie. A miniature daschund.
And this is the raccoon. Fortunately not a full grown raccoon or this story would certainly have a much less happy ending. This raccoon, actually raccoons, was more like a teenager. Complete with a nasty teenager attitude.
Can you see him? He was very good at hiding himself in the reeds.
Well, it all started when the dogs were barking like crazy. I grabbed my camera and headed down to this pine tree on the edge of our property. And up in the limbs was this little guy. I thought he was going to hang out in the tree. No such luck.
As we watched, the little raccoon climbed out to the edge of his limb and FLUNG himself into the water. And I mean flung. He landed with a splat and began swimming around in the marsh. Essentially, he belly flopped into the water. And he started taunting Irie. Now, Irie is a hound. And hounds hunt. So Irie was only doing her job when she attempted to attack the raccoon under the dock! I was standing on the dock feeling extremely frustrated because no one was doing anything to get the dogs back into the house and keep them away from the raccoon. You'd think they would take this seriously after our last run in with a raccoon.....
Flashback:
When I was in high school, we had two big dogs; a yellow lab named Beau (Sorry Beau! Hee hee! But we really did have a dog named Beau) and a chesapeake bay retriever named Belle. It was a cold morning, probaby Februrary or March. I was getting ready for school and everyone in the house was getting ready for work or school or the day. The dogs were outside barking up a storm, which is extremely typical in Blythewood. Thankfully, this was pre-small dog days. So we only had these two big dogs. All of the sudden, my mom starts screaming. She was up in her bathroom which looks over the pond. The two big dogs had treed a raccoon. But apparently the one thing a raccoon does when he feels threatened is jump in the water. No one, except maybe a bullet, is a match for a full grown raccoon in the water. And that includes two huge dogs. My mom started screaming because both of the dogs had taken off into the water, and as she watched, they disappeared. It was horrifying. Then one dog would pop back up, and go right back down. The raccoon was drowning both of them at the same time. He was on their backs, going from dog to dog, and there was nothing that the dogs could do. Raccoons have hands and can grab. And this one was grabbing and pulling them down. My mom ran to the pond and jumped in the boat and paddled as fast as she could out to the center of the pond, all the while screaming for help and yelling at the dogs and the raccoon, but to no avail. So she gets out to the middle and said it was horrible. The dogs were no match. The raccoon was taking both of them on. Finally at one point one of the dogs popped up with the raccoon on his back and my mom hit the raccoon, baseball style, and he went flying off. But the dogs weren't done. And niether was the raccoon. And as the raccoon came back for the dogs again, my mom stuck the paddle out. He latched on and tried to climb into the boat. So my mom had to hold him down, underwater....for a very long time. You get the picture. It was the only way to save our dogs though.
Flashforward:
So here we are and no one is doing anythign fast enough to get our small dogs back in the house. Can you imagine what it would have been like that morning in the pond with Irie? Becuase she'd fight a raging bull to the death. And a teenaged raccoon is just her size. And so what does she do? Charges it, under the dock, right under my feet. And in only a foot or so of space. So when Irie began howling (because she was loosing the fight) there wasn't much I could do. I jumped down into the bushes screaming at Irie and yelling at her to stop, and she popped out. I couldn't believe it. I think she realized she'd met her match.....a lesson she would soon forget when she challenged him again....in the water.
Well, we finally got the dogs in the house. And this little raccoon is under the dock still, and I am still standing on the dock. We are right up where the dock first starts in the yard. And he is making the meanest noises you've ever heard. Like a cat when he gets mad. This low, guttural, demonic growl. It was a strange noise. So the excitement wears off, and I have to go appologize to my mom for yelling at her. I wasn't really yelling AT her, I was yelling TO her becuase I was freaking out about Irie under the dock getting mauled by a raccoon. We resolve to keep the dogs in the house for a while and hopefully they'll forget about it, and the raccoon will move off. Needless to say, that isn't how any of this worked out.
My dad, Alston and I headed down to the front beach to the Pig to get some food for dinner, and that's when the real fun started. So I have no pictures of that. Maybe it's a good thing.
Well, my mom lets all the dogs back out while we are at the store. And they go right back over to the tree. My mom and Ben walk over there, and they can hear the raccoons making that mean growling sound. Because as it turns out, the dogs have discovered the nest. There are lots of little mean teenaged raccoons living in the tree. And they are all in the branches now. So Mom turns to Ben to say that this might get intersting when she hears a splat and then a spalsh. The splat was the raccoon flinging himself into the marsh, again. And the spash was Irie, who unbekownst to my mother, had been sitting on a root of the tree. Had been being the operative phrase because Irie has now jumped into the marsh to attack the raccoon. Mom scoops up the other three dogs, tells my brother to be on stand by in case something happens in the marsh, and runs inside to grab her tennis shoes and a float so she can go into the water if she needs to. Well, someone needed to. Before my mom could get back, Ben said that the two little animals squared off. The were inches apart and Ben was really hoping Irie would turn around and come back to the shore. Well she did, but not before these two went at it. And the raccoon climbed on Irie's back, and they began rolling in the water. Poor Ben grabbed another raft, jumped into the marsh, and by the time he got there, they'd separated. The raccoon was just sitting there, staring. And Irie was eager to get back into the fight, not realizing she'd probably lose! But Ben saved the day, and Irie survived her first, and hopefully only, run in with a raccoon.
There was one casualty though. Ben neglected to check his pockets and jumped in with cell phone in his pocket. We tried to dry it out, but it was lost in the fight. 
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