April Wamhoff

Nibs

Luna

Echo

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They say behind every successful women is a dog. Well, I don’t know how successful I am, but behind me there’s three of them. And I can’t imagine my life without them.
Many people that have fished around my point know the dogs. One family came back many times to check up on them. They called it Dog Point. 
It used to be when I worked in town they would all scamper into the boat twice daily to spend the day with my parents. Very little fuss about that once they learned the routine. Now that I work from home they don’t get as many boat rides, but I think they are as happy about that as I am. Oh, they still get boat rides and once a week we all try to visit the senior center, but we spend most of our time on the island.
I have had Nibs the longest. He’s a six-year-old black lab that I have had since he was a puppy and he loves the water. He’d play frisbee for as long as you would throw it. We play every night off of one shore or the other and it’s good exercise for him as he has had surgery on both knees. Unfortunately, I also end up with a wet, sandy dog in the bed at night. Oh, well. 
When we first moved out here, he would chase boats. Many times a friendly boater would haul him back home. He’d be a happy dog because he always got lots of attention and usually a sandwich was involved. He doesn’t do that very much any more and I am mostly glad. I always worried that a boater would not see his black head in time and hit him. Still, we met the nicest people that way.
Echo, my 10 year old husky, moved in with us when we moved to the island. At the age of 5, his family decided they couldn’t keep him. He’d  been in foster care for two years when Nibs decided he needed a friend. Echo is not so much the soft water dog, but make it snow and he’s a happy camper. Wintertime is his favorite. He’ll find a snowdrift along the shoreline and burrow right in until only his nose is sticking out. Mind you, this is not a survival situation for him because he’s always in sight of the house. He’s a big fan of snowshoe walks when there’s no slush on the lake. Echo is a beautiful dog, complete with a hair coat like a rug and blue eyes. He’s a favorite at the senior center.
Luna has been with us on the island for only about 15 months so she’s just finally feeling at home. She’s a two-and-a-half-year-old Australian Shepard who came to us when her owners didn’t want her. She’d just healed from a car accident that left her with a permanent limp. Luna’s a smart girl with the energy of an atomic bomb.
We all sleep in the loft and because of the limp she can’t manage the stairs on her own. So, she walks up on the front feet and I carry the back. It’s a system that works well for us. The stairs are about her only barrier, and frankly, I think someday she may even figure that out. We have balls and dog toys all over the point now for her. She lets us know whenever someone is on the dock,  or even if she thinks they are too close to what she thinks is her territory. I was worried when she first got here that she would try to herd all the wildlife on the island but, so far, she hasn’t harassed the locals too much.
There you have it, the dogs of Dog Point. Successful or not, they’re behind me all the way.