Splish splash at Whirling Waters waterpark

Once a year, at the end of the summer season, Whirling Waters waterpark in North Charleston stops chlorinating its pools and opens its gates to dogs. Despite Mascha and I both being sore and tired from our massive lawn-mowing, tree-downing, shrub-trimming, weed-clearing fall yard-clean-up on Saturday, we took Cooper for a half hour of fun at the waterpark Sunday (hey, after half an hour we were ALL worn out!) Despite it already being mid-September, it was still pretty hot out, and, contrary to the warnings in the paper that people would definitely NOT be allowed in the water, there were plenty of people in bathing suits enjoying the wave pool along with the dogs. Being the completely obedient people we are, we of course wore mid-calf pants, which subsequently did get plenty wet. Everybody seemed to be having a great time…most of all the dogs

We got there around 4 in the afternoon, and it seemed like most of the crowds had already come and gone…but there were still plenty of dogs…

This guy was having a blast following Cooper around (i think he was really just after the tennis ball Cooper had in his mouth)

Same objective here…except that he succeeded in getting the ballMurphy’s Law of bringing tennis balls for your dog to public places: either you bring plenty of balls, and leave with one if you’re lucky….or, you bring no balls, and leave with at least one.

This girl was a bit skeptical…but her daddy gave her plenty of reassurances…

Some dogs never even got their feet wet…

…despite being all decked out for the occasion…

This guy was really interested in the big toy i had in my hands…but no way i was tossing that in the water! (my camera)

Cooper was having as much fun out of the water…

…as in the water. 10 points for style on this jump back in the water chasing his tennis ball…

Plenty of tennis ball chasing going on…

…except the other guy came out of nowhere and ran off with it…

Cooper was ready to get out of there…and five minutes later he was sound asleep in his crate in the back of the Jeep.

We can’t wait ’til next year so we can do it all again!

Check out the video of the event by Lowcountry Dog magazine!

Whirlin’ Waters Dog Day Afternoon at the Waterpark from Docent Prodigy on Vimeo.

You can check out Lowcountry Dog magazine online at: www.lowcountrydog.com, or, check out their blog at: http://lowcountrydog.wordpress.com