There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth for my manservant when he lets my food dish run low.
Today my fur is flustered over my water dish. That is, my federal water dish, Beaver Lake.
The lake is so low the catfish are getting ticks. The lake is so low ducks don’t swim across, they wade. So low is Beaver Lake that I have to pack a lunch when I walk to the water to wet my whistle. This is a hardship on me.
The lake level is a topic of spirited debate between the cat butler and me, and I say he deserves a paw swipe across his ankle.
I get in a tizzy about the low lake and, to one-up me, he says he’s seen it lower. I can believe that, old as he is. When my doorman was in grade school the history books only had six pages.
Then he starts throwing out his silly facts.
“Fact is, Boat Dock, the lake has actually been 16 vertical feet lower than it is now,” he says.
The lake level as of Wednesday morning was 1,108 feet above sea level. I read it in the paper.
The lowest lake level ever, Mr. Smarty Pants tells me, was 1,092 feet during the winter and spring of 1976.
It’s getting to be a hike when I walk to the water, tail held high, for my drink.
His brain is too feeble to remember, but I, Boat Dock, have actually seen the lake lower, too.
I was just a kitten in 2006 when I took my first trip to the vet. We drove across the Arkansas 12 bridge, and the lake was so low you could walk from the parking lot almost all the way out to Bear Island. That year the lake level dropped to 1,105 feet above sea level, 3 feet lower than now.
I can hear you readers now. “Boat Dock, is it safe to go out in a boat with the lake this low?”
It is most certainly safe, said Alan Bland, an Army Corps of Engineers park ranger at Beaver Lake.
There is plenty of water, the good ranger said, but some extra caution is in order. Stay farther away from the shoreline, especially when passing long gravel points and gently sloping shorelines.
“Stick to the side of the lake that has the steepest shoreline or bluffs,” he said when I called him the other night.
Those still in doubt can get a Beaver Lake map from the corps. The river channel is marked on the map. Stay along the channel and the water will be many fathoms deep.
Be aware of obstacles. Up by Dam Site park is a house foundation that emerges from the water when the lake is low. It’s a big attraction for scuba divers and may already be on dry land. Another is a large rock, like an iceberg, about one-quarter mile east of Rocky Branch park, between Shaddox Island and the shoreline. It can be a hazard if it isn’t already.
Can you say new lower unit?
Meantime, let’s all do our rain dance. My federal water dish runneth low.
BOAT DOCK IS FELINE OUTDOORS COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.
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Outdoor, Pages 6 on 01/10/2013