11 Days at the Beach

[Izabella's Mom]

Me and my 8.5 month old Cairn and her Westie sister went to stay with my best friend in Westhampton Beach. She has 3 Maltese. Two the same age as mine and one senior.

So in this tiny house was us and 5 dogs. It was quite a challenge to keep the dogs at the level of barking decency.

Ok. So my girlfriend's boyfriend gets really sick and in the hospital and I of course offer to take care of her dogs to let her go do what she needs to do 100 miles away.

Once I'm on my own, I decided we should all go to the beach. I hump a beach chair for each dog and woman (6 chairs). One umbrella, a cooler packed with goodies for all of us and a towel each. It took me 4 trips, the last one of which I took the dogs to the site. It wasn't crowded on the beach but there were people there. A non dog friendly family was my closest neighbor. So I have the umbrella set up so it is shadng us all and I put everyone on their chair. Chaos took over so quickly. A loose dog came over and my gang went insane. I had 5 leashes in my hand and they were barking hysterically. They got into a frenzy and started attacking each other. I was holding dogs down with every part of my body and I could feel all the eyes on the beach starring. Finally the 10 year old rescue Maltese jumped out of my grip and chased the loose dog away but right then the umbrella went inside out and was threatening to blow away. I was struggling with the umbrella when black flies started to bite my ankle and then the young Maltese were suddenly running straight towards the water. I was not too freaked at first because I didn't think there was any way the tiny girls would go too close to the water but they went right into the churning ocean. She weighs 4 pounds. I had to sprint to catch her and then round up the whole gang and get them situated. After I got the umbrella straightened out, I tied everyone down and a good time was ultimately had by me. For a while there the situation was out of control, even by my standards.

We wound up staying for 11 wonderful beach days

Here's a picture with me walking all 5 of them and managing to set up the camera with the timer! Don't even tell me about my pants legs not matching. I'm lucky I'm fully dressed

[pkcrossley]

the dogs look very happy! barking running fighting annoying neighbors splashing and tying nanny up like gulliver with five leashes. what could be better?

[kjwarnold]

WWYT?

(What were you thinking????)

[Izabella's Mom]

WWYT?

(What were you thinking????)

I was thinking it was going to be great. I have a little bit of Lucy Ricardo in me.

[kayharley]

Oh...another I Love Lucy fan...I think their little dog Fred was a Cairn.

Great pics....someday you'll look back at your beach adventure and want to do it all over again!

[OzGirl]

Oh boy what an adventure... you're braver than me, I don't think I'd attempt a beach trip on my own with 5 dogs. I'm glad you ended up having a good time.

[Izabella's Mom]

Oh...another I Love Lucy fan...I think their little dog Fred was a Cairn.

I think that was the same dog as the most famous Cairn of all, Toto.

[Kathryn]

Your little cairn sure stands out among all the white pups!

[Barney's Mom]

Oh my goodness!!!! What a great mental picture I had of all that chaos!!! :lol:

We are taking ol' Barney to the beach (Outer Banks NC) in three weeks! He is mellowing a bit in his old age (18 months!) so I think we will have a little bit less stress than when we took him last year at 5 months!

My main problem was the ankle breaking crators he liked to dig in the sand! Ouch!

Glad it all worked out with your dog herd for the day!