Beach entanglement

Good Sat. morning. I took the dogs to the beach yesterday and enjoyed every tangled moment. I typically take either Jessie the small one or the poodles and its not because I can't handle three, it is the size difference. Jessie is 12" at the shoulders and the poodles around 25". That's some difference and the biggest issue in size difference is that Jessie tends to walk under the poodles alot.

But I was in the mood to spend an hour at the beach with all of my dogs so once we were all piled into the car we were off. Luke of course knew where we were going the minute I got off of the toll road. Luckily at this time of year the parking is great and I get to park a stone throw from the beach. Everyone had their harnesses on and off we went.

I had a momentary non mellow moment as one very stupid driver almost ran us over. I immediately kick into protective mode and screamed at the guy; "watch it you *&&%# idiot." He seemed unphased by my attack and kept driving; "ah, I hate people." So we continued across the Pacific Coast Hwy to the beach. This is the point where Luke starts to cry and pace. Once on the boardwalk you really have to watch your step. The boards that makeup the boardwalk are now heaved up and down, bowed and splayed from years of salty, damp weather.

We didn't stay on the boardwalk long and opted to jump off as we saw a Chow making its way to us. The owner was pulling it way off to one side which is a clear sign that "we aren't friendly." Now down in the sand, I take off my flipflops and put them into my trusty flipflop clip on my belt. I need both hands and from past experiences, holding flipflops in my hands is a big hinderance.

I wore a pair of sweats which I shouldn't have done but thought about Jessie when I put them on. She does not like to go into the water so figured I'd be good in pants with her, wrong. The poodle desire to go into the water was much stronger than jessie's desire not to, yep I was soaked. Walking down the beach with the bottom of my pants heavy with sand and water is less than perfect but it was my own fault. I never wear pants to the beach and should have known better.

It was a hazy day the type where the sky and water meld into one big bright white haze. Not picture perfect by any means but it was cooler and the beach was much less crowded. We always start out to the right, make the quick trip to the rocks and then turn around to walk down the longer left side of the beach. It was obvious by the people around that the site of these three dogs really made people happy, lots of pointing and smiling faces hint of it.

We were stopped almost 3/4 of the way down the beach by a lady inquiring into what type of dogs these all were. She first asked me if I was a dog walker. Now I guess in actuallity I am a dog walker but I let her know that these were all mine. She seemed to be quite fascinated and stayed to talk a while. She then thanked us for taking the time to talk and meet the dogs and went her way, nice lady.

Several times on our walk we stopped and sat in the sand just to watch the comings and goings. I love the picture of Luke sitting in the sand, his coloring matches and his big furriness just looks like he's going to bring home a ton of beach with him. So after we finished our walk we safely crossed back over to the parking lot and jumped into the car. A really nice afternoon.