Living in the country, cons exist that aren't as significant as when you live in a nice suburban neighborhood. I feared that every time I went to the pool, before I could swim, I would have to remove some critter that had wandered up and decided to either belly up to the bar or take a swim without the proper floatation devices. The idea of being faced with water logged mice, field rats, squirrels, raccoons, snakes, and so on, did not warm my heart. Even aided by a ten foot pole, I did not want to commune with nature this way.
The bottom line, we have no pool. Truth to tell, I'm glad. We do however have a nice view of the pond next door. The pond is inhabited by several bullfrogs whom we hear each night, turtles, probably a few snakes, and the occasional duck. I love to sit on the deck and listen to the frogs sing and watch the rippled reflection of the clear blue country sky.
At the time that we were making these decisions about a pool, we did not have Adidas, the black lab. Little did we know, he is an avid swimmer and would have made sure that we got our money's worth from a pool. Due to the poor planning on our part, he is forced to swim in the pond. And had I known his penchant for fishing rodents and amphibians from the murky aquatic depths (as is evidenced by the many turtle remains that he has collected on the porch), we could have worked a deal on the pool cleaning chore. Oh well, timing is everything and Adidas entered the picture too late.
He does love his daily swim in the pond.
And most of the time, he is considerate enough to shake the pond scum off before he comes back inside.
Like I said, I do not regret our decision not to build a pool. A pond scum covered lab, even one with a turtle or parts there of in his mouth, is a prettier sight than me in a swim suit!
