Shark Lessons

“I WANT OBIE!”

Caitlin sighed as the other adults in the group laughed. July 4th was going to be a good holiday, it was, it was, she thought. Cory, her husband, and she had invited her family to their home for the first time since her oldest nephew Carter had gotten sick. They were determined to make the visit as fun and interesting as possible. So they made sure that they had the pool really clean, plenty of floaties, and water-guns for Carter to spray at everyone. Except two-year-old Noelle wasn’t interested in any of that. She had seen the pictures of videos of their German Shepherd Oberon in the pool, and now wanted Oberon in the pool with her.

Oberon, however, was more interested in the adults with the food, and that was making Noelle angry.

Lindsay, Noelle’s mother and Caitlin’s sister, started laughing. “Noelle, sing Aunt Catie the shark song again.”

“NO!” Two adult voices accompanied by a tiny boy voice shouted.

“No more shark song,” whined 8 year-old Keaton. “She sang that the whole way here, and this morning before we got in.”

“Buddy, if the shark song makes her happy then there’s no screaming which makes everybody else happy,” Lindsay sang back.

“Yeah, no. I’m with Keaton. No more shark song.” Cory swam over to the edge of the pool and grabbed the blue floatie laying on the ground. This was specifically a dog floatie that belonged to Oberon. “Come on, Oberon. Come here.”

Oberon came running, he always did for Cory, and jumped, clearing the pool edge and landing with a splash on the floatie which Cory had braced. Noelle squealed, laughed, and clapped her hands. “Obie, shark!”

“Obie can’t be a shark, Noelle,” Keaton drawled. “Dogs aren’t sharks.”

“Hey, hey now.” Caitlin intervened, “There is such a thing as a dogfish shark. Obie can be that.”

“What’s a dogfish shark?”

Noelle was more interested in Obie in the floatie than she was in the conversation, so Cory took her from Caitlin and the two of them glided the dog and his floatie around the pool. Caitlin swam over to Keaton and settled against the side of the pool. “A dogfish shark is a thin shark with a pointy nose. They also have two fins on their belly side. Their skin is rough, except on the fins where it is smooth.

“Aunt Catie, did you already know this?” Keaton asked suspiciously.

“Absolutely not. I did research before you all arrived because I knew your sister was interested in sharks.”

“Are you smart, Aunt Catie?”

“I try to be.” Caitlin smiled at Keaton. “Wanna know more about dogfish sharks?”

“Yeah!”

“YEAH!” Noelle squealed and Cory laughed.

“Well, they are pretty small compared to other sharks. A male can be around 3 feet tall, but a female can be 4 feet tall.”

“I’m 3 feet tall, but Mom says I’m gonna be taller than her.” Keaton said excitedly.

“Yeah. Story of my life, kid.” Caitlin said sarcastically. “Usually, they have grayish-brown skin with white dots, but their bellies are paler. Some have bellies that are completely white.”

“Like a dog’s belly.” Keaton pointed at Oberon. “He’s brown, but his belly is white, too.”

“Exactly. And they are meat-eaters, which means they eat other smaller fish than them.”

“Like how Momo chases rabbits and squirrels?”

“Kind of. I don’t think Momo would actually eat those guys, but he does love to chase them.”

“MY KEATON!” Noelle squealed. “MY KEATON, WATCH OUT FOR OBIE! HE A SHARK! HE GONNA EAT YOU!” Cory and Noelle slowly pulled the dog and floatie toward Caitlin and Keaton, while humming the Jaws theme song.

“Do you think you can pretend for your sister? It’d be a pretty cool move.” Caitlin softly stated to the little boy.

“Yeah. But Obie is a pretty boring shark.” Both looked at the German Shepherd, who was happily panting away while trying to either lick both Cory and Noelle’s faces or lap up the pool water that made it in the floatie. Caitlin agreed but pulled Keaton away from the side, swimming around and around the pool as the other three slowly chased them down.

As Noelle’s squealing got louder and louder, Caitlin noticed T-Bone the pitt bull had leaned up, placing his front paws on the edge of the pool and peered in at the pool’s occupants.

“T! T’s turn!” Noelle cried as she pointed at the curious pitt bull.

Caitlin laughed. “Sorry, ladybug. T doesn’t want in the water. He just wants to make sure everyone is ok.”

“I WANT T!!”