Life is a Beach

We live in Florida and you don’t have to travel very far in any direction before you find water. It is important that Winston not be afraid of water and know how to swim in case he should accidentally fall off a pier or into a river. Also, water is a lot of fun and a very effective way to keep your cool.

It is early summer and the temperatures this weekend were stifling. Kelli found a dog park/beach not far from the house and thought it would be fun and educational for Winston to head out to the beach. Winston liked the idea so we packed up the car and headed for the doggie beach. This beach is part of a park on one of the popular bayous. The water is brackish and the waves are provided by boat traffic.

This was our first time to the doggie beach and we were surprised by the number of big dogs romping in the water. The breed de jour was the popular lab along with numerous goldens and other large dogs. Even at 22 lbs, Winston was about the smallest dog there. We thought Winston might be scared, but he commented that most of the dogs only had about 100 lbs on him and he would be gentle with them.

We let Winston go and he carefully inspected the water and waded in with some trepidation. Then he tried to bite an incoming wave and started coughing. Rule 1: Always stop breathing when biting water. Soon Winston got the hang of it and was romping through the water and even swimming. He was having a really fun time.

Meanwhile the BIG dogs were chasing Frisbees and Winston wanted to join in the fun, but the BIG dogs were much too fast swimmers for him. So Winston did the next best thing and stole the Frisbee once the BIG dogs retrieved it.

There was a bulldog wearing what looked like a Frisbee and Winston started to pull it off his back, but luckily he had the common sense to leave this guy’s Frisbee alone.

After Winston wore us out, we washed him up and headed home. Man, I wish my parents had taken me to the beach when I was 5 months old!