Willow turned 1!

I'm so disappointed that I left my camera in Connecticut. Willow and I made a trip to Jersey to spend some quality time with my mom. Coincidentally Saturday was Willow's first birthday. The little wild pup that we took home 10 months ago has not missed a beat. She's still running on a full tank of energy and leaves me with little time to rest.
In an inadvertent celebration my mom and I took Willow to the marsh for a swim. My mother's neighbor, also a farmer, let us use his 1/2 mile road to the marsh. Vern takes great care of this road. He ordered truckloads of Conchs from Maryland, drove over them with a tractor for weeks and created a pretty crushed shell walk way. Piles of unused conchs lie along the road as evidence of his work.
As scenic as the stroll to the marsh was, we were assaulted by deer flies. My mom aptly said, "It's like running the gauntlet". With bug spray as our shield we trekked down to a beautiful clearing. Willow's tail wagged her whole body as the excitement of the water overwhelmed her. She looked at me and with a gently whine requested to be unleashed. Once her harness was off, I could not keep her out of the water.
Quickly traversing between right and left, she couldn't choose which way she wanted to explore first. Low tide unveiled deep muck patches that Willow sunk into like quicksand. As she darted after a ball lost to the muck she became entrenched in black sand that left her as dark as Dakota. It was as if someone dipped her in a vat of black paint. The top half of her was golden yellow and drenched with salty water, while her lower half was filthy black. I called to her in the hope she would run through the clean water. Seconds later birds took flight at the sound of my mom's scream. Willow hadn't run through the water, she had darted straight in my mom's direction and shook closely to her, flinging muck onto her white pants.
Willow took another dive into the refreshing marsh, and I giggled as my mom gave me "the eye." The pup galloped in and out of the water for another 20 minutes or so and then trotted over to me to let me know she was tired and ready to go home.
Back at the house we hosed her off, brushed her hair and let her soak up the sun to dry off. She may have been free of muck, but she reeked of swamp. A successful trip, and a happy birthday for Willow bean. The only thing that would have made it better is if Joe was there to share it too.