The Beach

We took a day trip to the beach on Saturday, and what a wonderful day it was weather wise. We wanted to take our new dog Bodi for his first "road trip" as his brother Zeus has been many times. It took him awhile to settle down in the jeep but finally he did, after he had managed to give my husband and I numerous "baths" from his slobber flying around because he had his head out the window. Hound dogs are known for drooling a lot and this guy is King of the Droolers.....!

We got to the beach and went to this area where you can drive on the beach so we parked the jeep by the dunes, got out and let Zeus run around. We were warned by the shelter that another thing about hound dogs is "Never let them off their leash as they want to follow their nose!" Well Zeus was having SO MUCH FUN so we decided that if we put Zeus on a leash that maybe Bodi would be fine and stay right with us. NOT!!! He took off like a bolt of lightening had hit him in the butt, nose to the ground all the way - flying 100MPH down the beach. After the seagulls, after the people, after the other dogs, etc..... No amount of calling, screaming, whistling would get his attention until he ran smack dab into the water (he never even noticed the tide moving in) and it freaked him out so he turned towards me (how he could see me 1/4 mile away I have no idea) and he came running. Of course he got about 10 feet from me and decided to play and turned tail and ran off again. OK so imagine me this person who hasn't done much exercise at all since my surgery in 2007, running as fast as I can manage down the beach calling this crazy dogs name!!! (only by this time I wasn't calling his REAL name if you get my drift....). Anyway my husband jumped in the jeep and grabbed the other dog, drove after me and I got in the jeep and we took off after Bodi. We had stopped at a McDonalds in town and had the bag still in the jeep. I jumped out and called his name again, crouched down and waggled the bag at him hoping he knew what it was. And FINALLY he decided to run up close enough for me to grab his collar and snap the leash on it. Needless to say, I was out of breath and he looked like he could go another 5 miles or so, but that ended his day of freedom. After that he was on the "gentle leader" and a 20 foot leash so he could play some with his brother. He seemed ok with that and on we went.

I guess the moral of this story is......uh.....maybe I should stop eating so often at McDonalds......

K