Ruby’s story………….
The first time we went to the seaside I was so excited. I did always get excited when we went out in the car, although I hated the harness that I had to wear which held me down on the back seat of the car so that I couldn’t move. I hated it, I wanted to sit up front with mummy and daddy. Anyway, as I say I got excited going in the car but this particular day when we pulled up on a cliff side, there stretched out in front of me looked like my idea of heaven. A huge stretch of sand for me to run on and the sea for me to run in……. this was going to be fun, come on get me out of this car, hurry up, hurry up I want to get out. I was so excited I was jumping about, well as far as the harness would let me. When I did eventually get out of the car, we were straight down on to the beach and they let me free and I was off….. running as fast as my legs would carry me, I went hurtling down towards the water and in I splashed, but this time this water was different, it wasn’t like the water in the sink that I remembered from my bath on the first day, and it wasn’t like the water in the neighbours pond that I’d swam in before, this water was strong, this water was moving, and when I went splashing in I was knocked off my feet and went under the water, I panicked a little at first but once I got my sea legs I was fine this was fun.
It was here on the beach that I had my first play with other dogs, there were loads of us there that day, all doing the same thing, all having fun in the water and running around chasing balls and chasing each other…… I loved it.
I saw a a little black dog down by the water, he was all on his own, he wasn’t joining in and he was just laying in the sand on his own. I know I’ll go and see him, I thought, and see if he wants to play so off I went……. but as I got closer to him, he didn’t look quite right, he didn’t look like me or the other dogs on the beach, this guy looked different, this might be why he wasn’t joining in, oh well, looks aren’t everything, I’ll still go and see if he wants to play. But as I got closer and closer he saw me and he didn’t look too happy, he looked quite angry actually, and he really must not have wanted to play because he slipped in to the water and started to swim away, he was heading towards some rocks were there were some other funny looking dogs that looked like him…… well I liked swimming as well, so I thought I’d follow him, so off I went. But then as per usual, they came to spoil my fun, splashing into the water behind me came my daddy and grabbed me before I could get to the funny looking dogs and hauled me out of the water again. Honestly these two spoil all my fun……….
We’ve been back to that beach often, and I love it every time we go, but I’ve never seen the funny looking dog family since……
Mummy’s story…………
We had started taking Ruby out in the car and bless her she used to get so excited, but she hated the seat belt harness that she had to wear, when we got it out of the cupboard, and she spotted it she went crackers, we literally had to wrestle her to the ground to get it on. She hated having to sit in the back of the car as well, she barked and carried on like she was being tortured, but as soon as we got to where we were going it was excitement overload and she went bonkers wanting to get out of the car.
The day we took her to the seaside for the first time, was just far too exciting for her. We had to drive down a country lane and through a farm to get to the cliff top where we parked above the beach. As soon as she saw the sea, that was it, she went crazy trying to get out, she was like a wild animal.
But once we got her out she was in heaven, bless her, getting down onto the beach she just ran and ran, she looked so happy, she headed straight down to the waters edge and took a few little tentative steps in and then a wave came and washed over her and knocked her off her little puppy feet. “Go in and get her” I shouted at the other house, “no” he said “leave her she’s fine, she’ll get used to it”, but my mothering instincts were just too much, I was panicking……….
Back on the beach she made so may new friends, running around with them and chasing each other, she was having so much fun………. but then what’s that she doing, where’s she going, she started heading off towards the shoreline and towards a little black speck that I could see, what was it, what was it that she was heading towards. As we got closer, I could finally see what the little black speck was, it was a seal basking in the sunshine. Oh my god, she’s heading towards a seal, “quick” I shouted at the other half, “quick it will attack her”……… but then thankfully she stopped running, I think that she might have realised that this wasn’t a friend she was heading towards, this could actually hurt her. As she got closer to it, the seal slipped gently into the sea and started swimming towards some rocks where some much bigger seals were basking, who were obviously mummy and daddy seal and who had their eyes on this crazy Labrador puppy that was doing the doggy paddle right towards their seal baby.
“Your going to have to go in”, I shouted at the other half, “why me” was his reply, “because your bigger and stronger than me, you might have to wrestle a puppy out of a full grown seals claws”, so in he ran………. and thankfully grabbed her and hoisted her out before she got too close………..
We’ve been back to the beach often, but thankfully we’ve not encountered a seal since…… perhaps they’ve moved on because of the unruly visitors…..