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Scuba diving is a sport enjoyed by millions of people all over the world. You strap on the oxygen tank, wetsuit, mask and fins, sink into the ocean, and you're enveloped by the silence of the deep sea. Schools of shiny reef fish dart back and forth in unison. Stingrays and jellyfish glide by, weightless and graceful. In the distance, you see something else. It's swimming with a fellow scuba diver, and it has a tank and mask of its own. It could be child, but it's too small and looks like it might actually be … furry. As you get closer, you find that it's not a child -- it's a dog. It's Mutley the dog. Mutley the scuba diving dog.

Scuba diving enthusiast and pet lover Gene Alba, of Redding, Calif., is the man responsible for this unusual canine activity. A longtime diver, Alba dreamed up a scuba setup for his shaggy mixed breed, Mutley. Alba had no previous experience building scuba equipment, but his creative thinking and 20-year dive history were all he needed to successfully design a working canine scuba system -- that and about $40,000.

The trick to completing the suit was finding the right balance between floating and sinking in water. Alba sewed built-in pockets on the sides of the wet suit that hold lead weights, which keeps Mutley from rising too high or sinking too low. Her head is outfitted in a custom-made, inverted Plexiglas bubble, which is also weighted. The same principle as a diving bell is at work here. An inverted bell, bowl or bubble holds pressurized air as long as it's kept upright -- but that also makes it harder to submerge. It takes 16 pounds of lead weights around Mutley's bubble to keep her underwater, but still buoyant. (You can learn more about buoyancy in How Scuba Works.)

Alba worked out everything in his backyard pool before taking Mutley into the ocean. After some practice, Mutley became scuba certified aboard a Caribbean cruise ship.

It may seem unusual that Mutley scuba dives, but many dogs like to swim and are highly trainable, so it's not the furthest stretch of the imagination. Cats, on the other hand, aren't known to like getting wet.

Alba and Mutley were a happy scuba diving duo, exploring the shallow waters of the Caribbean and Alba's backyard pool on a regular basis. Things changed about 10 years ago when the pooch alerted Alba to some trouble outside their house. Mutley led her owner to a young cat that was tangled up in chicken wire. The female calico had the wire tight around her neck and was near death. Alba acted fast -- he got some pliers and cut her loose, performed mouth-to-mouth and saved her life. He named his new addition Hawkeye, nursed her back to health and quickly found that Mutley had a new best friend.

The unlikely pair became inseparable -- playing together, sleeping together, skateboarding together and even bathing together. Hawkeye first let Alba know she didn't mind water when she started jumping into the bathtub with Mutley. Before long, Hawkeye began to show a growing interest in her buddy's adventures in the swimming pool, too. One day when Mutley was enjoying a swim, Hawkeye took the plunge herself and did her best "cat paddle."

Alba explains that as long as Hawkeye can keep her face dry, she doesn't mind water. His theory is that she wants to be close to Mutley so much that she tolerates what most cats avoid. Then there's the matter of Hawkeye's figure. The kindest way to describe her is that she's a cat of generous proportions. Alba thinks that when Hawkeye was spayed there was an error in the procedure, which causes her belly to hang down too low. Regardless of the reason, swimming became a great way for Hawkeye to get some exercise without putting stress on her joints.






"I'm just right. Kinda like the sun rising in the east and the world being round...its not a need its just the way it is." The Delusional "Hero", 3/1/10

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having an empathic understanding and knowledge of their body language is a better defense than a 12pounder fulla cannister

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