Another gorgeous beach morning

Gandalf is tired this morning, after another big morning on the beach. Again, some old memory kicked in, and after chasing the thong into the water, he headed through the soft sand (mum watching, horrified, holding her breath) and up the ramp.

Said hello to Lotte the big teddy bear dog and sniffed around ( “where’s the car, mum?”). Carried him back to safe ground, and back to the buggy.

“out out” he yelled when he saw his mate Woody (little white dog).

The beach here is used by the education department’s aquatic centre, and a tractor brings down boats, surf boards, wind surfing boards, etc. and these sit at various points along the beach until the hoards of kids come (not a bad day at school, huh). Gandalf has always simply put himself into a “sit” when he sees (or hears) the tractor (I don’t hear it :). The tractor guy has always said Gandalf is the best dog on the beach. So he still does it. And if he’s in the buggy, I stop and wait.

As the tractor guy says…Gandalf is still the best dog on the beach.

On the walk home we passed work men (“oh you have a dog in there”…I stop myself from saying “really? you’re kidding?”). But one of the guys (after I explained the 3-legged status) revealed he had a 9yr old tripawd staffy. I told him about this site (his dog had cancer) and he told me about the local chiro who he takes his dog to. Great contact!

But he’s tired. We’re going to have a day at home. Yesterday we went to see my mom for lunch (mom has a bit of short term memory loss, and she loves Gandalf and is constantly surprised by the absence of the leg, big explanation every time…). Then we spent the afternoon at my studio where he watched me paint–he has a soft sided crate he can go in if he wants, but instead he tends to sit at the door and watch the traffic go by. It’s back to normal, maybe.

The studio is next to an rspca op shop, and Gandalf walked in…they didn’t notice his 3 legged status. And then of course we have to talk about it.

It’s tough to talk about!