We can’t always choose our pets. Sometimes they manage to select us at those shelters. We can choose our boats to fit them, however, based on the four basic animal types: big or small, those who hate the water, and those you can’t keep out of it. We’ve all seen waterfowl dog competitions; there’s no denying those dogs love the water. Waterfowl dogs are great for hunters from the Shore and flat-bottom jonboats, but not so much for “princess” owners trying to keep their white leather salons free from shore muck and sand fleas. Little dogs are great companions for short- and long-distance cruiser owners to have onboard, provided the smaller boats can find land to de-water the pups. Fortunately, swim platforms on larger cruisers can serve double duty for those small pooches’ two-hour bladders. The best dog that ever lived grew up around our boats from the moment he was old enough to walk. For the dog’s skin issue, our veterinarian put this tiny puppy on steroids for quite a while, and a year later, this black lab and golden retriever mix weighed around 110 pounds. He loved everything about the water, from trying to catch fish to rolling in the dead ones found along the shore. He’d sit in the front of our bowrider like a mermaid figurehead, his drool flying everywhere at 50 miles per hour. We’d beach our boat on the sand, and that dog would leap from the boat before it fully came to rest. Lifting a soaking wet, 110-pound dog over my head when it came time to shove off while standing on sand was hard enough, but nothing in comparison to trying to lift this dog into the boat one notable, cold spring day. He loved the water so much that the moment I shut the engine off, over a mile from shore, he thought it was his cue to dive in. I tried to lift him out of the water, and it was physically impossible, scarily so. Despite the water being just above freezing, I raised my lower unit as high as I could, took off all my clothes, straddled the freezing cold lower unit, and managed to lift that soaking wet dog over my head up onto the swim platform. I think he knew my wife was laughing at me and not him. Maxfli boated with us for almost 17 years, and while his “replacement” is a very smart dog, Nitro is opposite of the original in almost every way possible. A little more prissy, so muscular and lean he doesn’t float, not fond of noises like engines, but he does really enjoy sprawling out in the master berth. The good news is he’s not getting dead fish smells all over, but maybe it’s time to buy a bigger boat so I can have my bed back. B.O.A.T. by Mike Edick