Winding down

As I sit typing I look over at my sofa to see three very special canines wrapped in blankets and sound asleep.  We've had a busy day; poor little Jessie is catching up on her much needed sleep from her never ending Sundown Syndrome.  It actually does end, it ends the moment she gets up in the morning.  It is then and only then that she is down, down for the count for most of the day.  Then the cycle begins again.  As I sit and watch her deep breathing, under her blanket I wonder why she cannot simply sleep like this at night.  But for some reason, bedtime now means up time for the poor little gal.   So we are learning to cope.

The poodles are happily tired, they spent the morning at the beach.  For a 10.5 year old and a nearly 14 year old it doesn't take much to tucker them out.  Tilley is exhausted, I knew she would be but sometimes the exhaustion is well worth it.   We were going to head out this morning without her, the walk we typically do is far too much for her now.  But after watching her hop around throwing her head in the air I had to readjust.  We CAN take her, we just have to adjust our walk.  We will make sure we get parking close by and take the first ramp down to the beach.  There Tilley and I will sit and watch Dad and Luke run around.  It'll be great.

Great it was, it was so wonderful to see her enjoying the beach.  Yes it was a lot for her, maybe a bit much but she was happy, so happy.  Tilley is such a water dog and she was chomping at the bit to get in.  Of course with the California surf being pretty huge she just waded as did Luke.  They got caught in a couple of big waves which meant wet shoes for Dad and two very wet poodles.  We did it slow, slow is the secret to success here.

After a wonderful beach visit it was up the ramp again.  Dad and Luke ran ahead and Tilley and I took our time, we smelled the roses and took in the amazing scenery as we meandered up the ramp.  We went so slow that I bet she didn't even realize that we were going up hill.  By the time we hit the parking lot it was obvious that we were at the end of the energy allotment for the day.  I fluffed up her many fleece blankets in the car and lay her comfortably down.

The car ride home was a quiet one, two very tired poodles.  Once home we washed away the ocean from their curls and they took a few to cool down.  Then it was onto breakfast, second breakfast that is.  They feasted on turkey, raw beef, banana, tomato, vitamins and egg shell.    And then a much deserved nap time, just until dinner time that is.