Chicken (15) debuted her new shark life jacket, which allows her to plunge in, fetch to her heart’s content, and—rather importantly—not drown (her back end has been losing strength). The handle also lets me gently help her up the steps.

She thoroughly tested every feature except restraint. The handle turns out to also be good for dragging her away from the pool.

Shawnie (3) finally remembered she is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever this year, and also made the life-altering decision that clean water probably won't kill her.

Her first retrieve attempt this year consisted of the usual sitting on the pool step and whining until I retrieved the toy. Quickly, though, she began flaunting her retrieving—and stealing—skills for Chicken and the deck-clingers Mac and Maggie.

She wasn't happy unless she could fit all the toys into her mouth on one retrieve—so she often resorted to the 'baleen whale' technique (trying to swallow some, pushing some, periodically huff-spouting the water out).

Mac (2), who believes getting wet signals the apocalypse, actually willingly put his toes in on the first step to try for the toy (with lots of encouragement)…then misjudged the depth of the next step and fell in.

He mostly gracefully swam one small circle, retrieved nothing, and exited with haste. He did try putting his feet in again afterward. So, despite the apocalypse happening, and despite resembling a wet woolly mammoth for a while, the experience didn't fully destroy his trust in me...or his desire to show off for the girls.

Maggie (4) refused the obviously dangerous steps and instead stretched precariously over the pool’s edge, pawing at the toy...until she plunged in headfirst. After attempting to climb straight back up the wall, she accepted guidance to the steps, recovered the offending toy, and shook it violently (for several minutes) to teach it never to do that again.
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(Maggie pictured with toy, pre-offense.)

Darryl (6) plunged in and (as fast as his stubby legs could paddle) swam the length of the pool three times—but only because my toes kept emerging from the water while I floated, clearly indicating that I was drowning (thereby threatening his world domination plans involving me as his muscle).

He was deeply offended when I laughed at him for repeatedly rescuing me. It's likely I'll be left to drown next time.

The End of Earth was Their Beginning.

Kaity Anderson was a new bride on her wedding day. Samantha Harris was an engineer who had given up all to follow God.

Kaity’s reception is ruined when an alien gunship incinerates the surface of Earth. Rescued from the apocalypse by a strange prophetess, Kaity, her husband, and five others are drawn across the galaxy. While the prophetess promises God has a plan, Kaity grows increasingly desperate as their chances of survival—and water supply—dwindle.

Samantha didn’t ask to be God’s prophetess. Yet once she answers the call, the Spirit leads her to an inhospitable world with Kaity and several of Earth’s survivors. Hounded by the master of the gunship, the Earthlings search for water...

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He had planned the perfect revenge—until she came and changed the rules.

He wants to make her pay.

She wants to ease his pain.

But an outer force wants something far more dangerous ...

Aria Travinni has spent her life tending to others as a nurse, keeping her world small and predictable. But when strange symptoms begin to affect her life—like a pulse of power she can’t explain—she knows something unnatural is at play. The night she boards a train, her carefully ordered life detonates. The truth doesn’t just find her. It drags her somewhere she never could have imagined.
​---READ MORE---​