Mabel the Labrador had a plan. It started with a blue kiddie pool, a backyard swimming pool, and the kind of single-minded canine logic that her family affectionately calls disaster time. What followed was a maritime experiment that ended in spectacular failure, genuine regret, and eventually, a fortified vessel that even Mabel could not sink, no matter how hard she tried.
The blue pearl and the engineering problem
The kiddie pool, which the family nicknamed the blue pearl, became Mabel’s obsession after she dragged it into the bigger pool and discovered that boats were theoretically possible. The success rate, her family noted, sat at roughly 10 percent. Most attempts ended with the pearl going under, taking Mabel with it. One early run ended before it even began when she jumped in and the pool snagged on the pool step, leaving her technically aboard but firmly not at sea. Another attempt, fueled by what appeared to be pure optimism, ended the same way every attempt ended.
Then came the moment the family describes with a kind of hushed awe. Mabel, fed up after one too many sinkings, tore the blue pearl apart. ‘Mabel, what have you done?’ her owner asked. ‘Now it’ll never float.’ The regret was immediate and, by all accounts, genuine. The destruction was followed by the quiet, slightly devastating look of a dog who understood exactly what she had done.
A replacement pool was sourced, one designed to actually float and hold her weight, but the family was honest about its standing: it was second to the blue pearl. No chaos, no drama, no soul.
The unsinkable version and the new challenge
After the family shared Mabel’s story, suggestions poured in about how to fortify the original blue pearl design. The upgraded version was reinforced, relaunched, and Mabel was surprised, first that it floated properly, and then that nothing she did could send it to the bottom. That, naturally, became the new goal. Pillaging and plundering in the pool, trying to sink it by sheer force of Lab. The family has committed to keeping a spare blue pearl stocked in the shed at all times. ‘We will buy as many blue pearls for Mabel as she wishes,’ her owner said.
Also carried inside the same household is Roman, a senior cat who arrived from the Humane Society missing his tail, half his tongue, and all of his teeth, and who was given a predicted year to live. Four years later, Roman is still there, reading his owner’s moods, leaning on her through grief, and still taking visits from his foster mom, whom the family calls Auntie Jolene. Roman remembers her every time.
Roman, still giving kisses
Roman’s foster mom still comes by the house. He still remembers her, and he still goes straight to her for kisses when she arrives.
Out in the yard, the blue pearl sits in the big pool, waiting. Mabel has not sunk it yet.
