The Yellow Submarine

When I would visit home, usually I’d be home for just a weekend or possibly a long holiday weekend. Since my time home was brief, I wanted my stay to be as eventful and fun-filled as possible which meant I would buy many toys to satisfy the babies and would subsequently give us something to do. However, there were times when I was a little excessive in my toy selection and expenditures. Sometimes I would buy toys that were not in any way meant to be a dog toy but nevertheless were used for playing with dogs anyway.

A remote controlled toy submarine was an example of such overindulgence. Spurring the idea was how much fun the babies had with the remote controlled toy car from a year or two ago. If they liked a land toy of that nature, maybe an aquatic one would be just as fun and would give us some amusement while we were outside and playing in or by the pool. I can’t say for sure where we bought the toy, or even who bought the toy, my mom or me. I was worried for a couple of reasons when first getting that toy. First there was the chance it wouldn’t work that well and wouldn’t live up to the claims the advertisers made such as the toy’s diving ability. Second, I worried that the dogs would either be scared of the toy or simply be uninterested in it and therefore they wouldn’t play with it.

All of my worries were for naught. Andy was a little nervous of the toy, but Abby and Father absolutely loved it. Once Andy saw that Abby didn’t fear the toy and had so much fun playing with it, Andy, too came around and played with it as well. I was shocked that Father took an interest in the submarine.

On the “Alpha Run”, I set the toy in the pool and let it float there in place for a couple of minutes, long enough for the babies to trot to the pool’s edge and take a good look at it. Abby and Father were the first to check out this new object. Abby’s ears drooped and her brow was furrowed. Father was simply perplexed. Once they were comfortable with the object, I propelled it forward. It didn’t do fast, but it did go at a good clip. Abby’s deep booming voice went ‘woof, woof’ and Father’s high-pitched voice too sounded off. Father leaned over and grabbed at it. I had to make a quick turn to steer away from the pool’s edge or else Father would have snagged that thing. Abby also made a grab at it, but unlike Father, Abby wasn’t going to limit her attempts at getting that toy by staying on the pool ledge. Abby hustled to the concrete steps, slipped into the water and gave chase to the submarine. As noted earlier, this thing wasn’t terribly fast so Abby was able to catch up with the toy. When she did make contact with it, she bumped in to it and then tried to pick it up with her mouth.

I circled the toy around her a few times making her cry a little and frustrated. Once she was able to figure out the toy’s limits in mobility, that is when I submerged the toy. That thing could go at least 5 or 6 feet deep. I was impressed. Abby was nonplussed to say the least. Her face was worried, and she kept circling over the toy. She knew it was underneath her but she couldn’t get at it. Finally, I would surface the toy so that it would bump in to her from underneath hitting her belly. Now Abby was a little scared and started to whine. Eventually Abby got used to the toy’s submerging, surfacing and bumping in to her. It added to the fun. She would have a worried look on her face whenever that toy bumped into her belly from underneath.

Father would be watching the whole time and going haywire. I would allow the boat to get too close to the edge once in a while, and when I did this, Father would grab the sheath holding the toy’s antenna and pick up the toy and sling it around. I guess Father thought this was a little animal and wanted to kill the little rascal. I would have to shout at Father, take the toy from him and place the toy safely away from Father’s reach. The fun would continue. These games would go on for hours and hours on a weekend.

This toy was even more fun than I imagined and performed better than I had hoped. The only drawback was that the toy need over a half a dozen batteries for the submarine itself and the controller need 4-6 batteries. On top of that, the toy sucked power like a vortex so the unit needed to be recharged a couple of times on a weekend.

I loved the toy. The babies loved the toy. It was money well spent.