Fetching in the Pool (click for larger view)

Some of St. Petersburg’s public swimming pools shut down at the end of the summer, after school begins, and don’t reopen until next year.  One very fun longstanding tradition in St. Petersburg is to have a leash-free, no holds barred dog swim day.  Today was that day!  The Fossil Park Pool has shut down for the season, but before they completely lock the gates, dogs were allowed to bring their human friends to the pool to watch them swim.  There were two sessions today, one from 10 – 12 and the other from 1 -3.  There is an admission fee of $5 per dog, but from what I saw, most of the dogs got their humans to spring for the admission fee.

I’ve never been to the event before, but I marked my calendar because I wanted to see it and I wanted photos so that I could post about it.  I expected it to be fun, but it was really much more fun than I had anticipated.  As spectators, my wife and I were not charged, though we did have to sign a liability waiver.  I have to admit that I didn’t read it closely, but I think it said something about not suing anyone if my feet got peed on, or worse.

Anyway, once we got inside, it was just a happy, happy dog scene.  I don’t care how melancholy or disinterested a person might be before walking in – once you got inside, you coudn’t help but feel cheerful and happy.  I found myself laughing quite a bit, just from watching how happy these crazy dogs were, running around, jumping off the side of the pool, jumping off the low diving board, chasing after toys, and just having a great time all around.  And there were always dogs clumped around the cement steps into the shallow end of the pool – the less adventurous or less experienced ones who were too intimidated to take a serious leap.

Just another little fun part of living in St. Petersburg…

Jumping off the Diving Board (click for larger view)

Just One of the Humans (click for larger view)