In our seemingly unending spirit of adding unnecessary complication to our already-complicated lives, we have adopted an adult Newfoundland dog.

She is absolutely a lovely creature, at least on the scale of creatures who poop on my hardwood floors.

Newfoundlands are very cool dogs. Loyal, loving, exceptional with children, gentle, lazy, incredibly powerful swimmers given they were bred for water rescue and have saved hundreds or thousands of lives (including that of Napoleon who was once swept overboard and rescued by a Newfoundland).

And here we see that water rescue instinct in action.

This is Rosie, keeping a watchful eye, on red alert, “protecting” our kids from the impending peril of the water . . . in our bathtub: