Dog Stories: A Labrador Retriever and a Lifesaver Frisbee

Snoop was my first dog and taught me what it was like to have a dog as a best friend when I was just five years old. A sweet and young black Labrador Retriever, Snoop was my playmate and constant companion. When my half-brothers were at our home, we became a foursome, exploring the woods and the lake where we lived. However, as soon as Dad arrived home from work or from a business trip, Snoop quickly abandoned us to become velcroed to his side.

Snoop was always next to Dad when he grilled. She snoozed at his feet when he was inside reading or watching TV. She curled up under the desk when he worked in his home office. Of course, she followed him dutifully when he worked on projects around the house. Snoop was also his beloved hunting companion and I remember her snoring away happy and exhausted in front of the fireplace after a long day of hunting ducks with our dad.

Summers at Lake Champlain, Vermont

My Mom’s side of the family loved to vacation at Lake Champlain, Vermont. We spent many summer vacations there with my parents and grandparents in cabins on Button Bay. My brothers and I spent our days swimming in the lake or going out on my grandfather’s boat, staring at the surface of the dark blue water looking for Champ, the Loch Ness style monster who was rumored to live in the lake.

Just as we did at home, we spent all of our time outside in the fresh air. And just like at home, Snoop was with us for all of our adventures, swimming with us, running along the rocky shoreline. It was complete and utter Labrador retriever Utopia.

The Red Lifesaver Frisbee

One summer I brought along my most prized possession that year: my red Lifesavers Frisbee. I don’t remember how I got it, but I had brought it on that trip with the express purpose of playing water Frisbee with my brothers.

You see, Monday through Friday I was an only child. But weekends were magic! On weekends I had rough and tumble brothers to accompany me on adventures. We would hang out in our rock fort in the woods, take my dolls on 4-wheeling adventures, and generally spend from sunrise to sundown outside.

Although that Frisbee was pretty boring when my brothers were not with us, I knew without a shadow of doubt how much fun we could have playing with it together. Our summer vacation would give us an entire week of fun, and I had counted down the days until we all went on our trip together.

On the first day of our vacation we all headed down the massive flights of wooden stairs to the water, our arms laden with supplies. Our huge black inner tubes – made from the inside old tractor tires – were pumped up and ready. Mom’s raft was inflated. Snacks and drinks were packed. And yes, I had my red Lifesaver Frisbee. We were ready for fun!

Once in the water I showed the frisbee to my brothers, and they thought it was as cool as I did. We decided that not only would we play in the water, but we would all get on our inner tubes to play. Those old black inner tubes from trucks and tractors were the best floats. They were so much more durable and able to withstand rough housing than the easily popped versions made today.

We each got on our tubes and positioned ourselves in the water in a triangle. Of course none of our throws to each other were remotely accurate. This just added to the fun because then we could launch ourselves off the tube in an effort to catch it. We never caught it, so we would swim after it to get it to throw it to the next person. In fact I am quite confident that we were all intentionally inaccurate just to make the person to whom we were throwing jump off and fetch it.

Snoop Makes Her Move

There was a long pier on our beach that jutted far out into the water. After a little while Snoop noticed that we were playing a game without her and she ran out onto the pier to watch us. As she watched the red Lifesaver Frisbee flying from kid to kid, she grew more and more animated. Her tail wagging furiously, her mouth hung open in the classic Labrador Retriever smile, tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth. She ran up and down the length of the dock repeatedly, happily following the frisbee as we threw it to each other.

On the next throw to me, my older brother whipped it over my head, as older brothers love to do. The frisbee landed in the water about ten feet away from me, and about five feet from the end of the dock. I dove off my tube and swam to get it, but as I was halfway there I saw Snoop crouching on the dock, figuring out the angle for her jump.

“No, Snoop! No! Stay!!” I yelled, swimming faster.

Like most dogs, Snoop understood Geometry better than any human. She landed precisely in front of the frisbee with one leap and snatched it up in her mouth. Like any good hunting dog, she swiftly turned and swam to shore with her possession.

“Snoop has the frisbee!!!!” we all yelled to our parents and grandparents on the shore.

“She’s a hunting dog, she has a soft mouth, she won’t hurt it!” Dad called out to me.

I was swimming as fast as I could to catch her, but I had been delayed by making sure my inner tube did not float away, so she had gained a lot of ground on me. I was still swimming back to shore as I watched our perfect hunting dog reach the beach and then race past my father across the sand with my red Lifesaver Frisbee in her mouth.

“Snoop, wait!!!!” I called frantically.

“It’s ok, she’s not going to harm it, Lynn, calm down!” Dad said.

I was still swimming as I watched her take my frisbee down the beach and in a matter of seconds put one big paw on one end and start chomping on my prized toy. By the time we got it back it was no longer a beautiful perfect red circle. It was no longe recognizable as an oversized version of the best flavor of candy there ever was. The frisbee had been reduced to shards of plastic and Labrador slobber on the rocky gray sand.

Snoop and her Gentle Hunting Dog Mouth

“Snoop, you ate my frisbee!” I said to her in disbelief.

She looked up at me, tail wagging, pleased with herself and her frisbee destroying skills. I wanted to cry with disappointment over having the toy for such a brief amount of time, but as all kids growing up in the 70s knew, you did not cry over such trivial things. If you did, you would hear the famous phrase, “Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about!” Of course, looking back, nothing actually happened after those words came out of our parents mouths.

I picked up the pieces and headed back to where the family was camped out in lawn chairs on the beach. Snoop trotted alongside me, blissfully unaware of the havoc she had wreaked on my plans to play Frisbee every day my brothers were with us.

“Huh,” Dad said, “I didn’t think she would chew it! She would have never done that to a duck!”

Of course this story has lived on for decades. Like most family stories, it has grown more dramatic with each telling. It has also become my favorite memory of Lake Champlain. At the end of theQ day, I’d rather have had Snoop than a red plastic frisbee. It would be a little too on the nose to say that dogs are the real lifesavers…even though they are. Over 40 years later, I still love to tease my Dad about his perfect Snoop, her soft retriever mouth, and how she would never ever chew up my beloved red Lifesavers Frisbee.