ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BEACH

After my first visit to a beach I was excited to hear my humans telling me we were going to another beach.  This one was called the Coral Beach and is at St. John's Point near my holiday home (yes, we had another mini-break and it was great fun but I will tell you about that another time).

Surveying the beach (I see I still have my baby teeth!)

The beach is below the road we drove over so I had a good chance to survey this new beach from above before we went down to it for me to explore.

There were no dogs on the beach though so no chance to meet up with new dogs.  Ah well, maybe next time.  And there were no birds to chase either.

I didn't much like the way down to the beach because I am not used to climbing and my human, Sean seems to be refusing to lift me anymore ~ he said I am getting too heavy to be hoisted around.  Whatever hoisted is.

Look!  A jellyfish!

There were lots of things to smell on this beach too including what Catherine called jellyfish.  Jellyfish just look like blobs of shiny stuff on the beach.  Catherine was amazed at seeing so many jellyfish and said they must have all been washed in at high tide.  There we go again with this high tide stuff.  I wish I could tell you what it is but maybe one day someone will explain it to me so I can report back to you.  Sadly, I was tugged away from the jellyfish before I could pick one up in my mouth to taste it so I don't know if you can eat them or not.  My humans always tug me away from interesting things!

Yes, more waves!

I have one bad thing to report ~ this beach had waves too!  You will remember my first beach visit where I discovered the horror that is waves.  If you haven't already read about it, you can by clicking HERE.

Beaches would be so good if it wasn't for waves.  There's lots of stuff to smell and investigate but all the time I have to be careful that a wave could creep up on me at any time.  My human, Catherine, says that soon I will love dashing into the waves and swimming.  I don't know what this swimming is but I am sure I won't be dashing into waves any time soon!

We played on the beach for a while and I was really enjoying myself when Catherine said "Oh, look, a herd of cattle.  Let's take Oscar up to meet them".  So that was the end of my beach adventure as I was pulled along back up the path and on to the road.

Look how small they look

And it was there I met cattle for the first time.  From far away they looked tiny and I was looking forward to investigating them.  Maybe they would play with me like my brothers and sisters when I was a little puppy?  

But close up cattle, in case you don't know, are these HUGE beasts who look a bit scary to me.  They are even bigger than my dad Ike ~ and he is huge too.  Even Catherine said they were very big cattle and they were bullocks not cows.  So many names for one thing!  

And look how big they are close up!

They had things sticking out of their heads and I know they are called horns because Catherine said that it was funny they didn't have their horns trimmed whilst pointing at these dangerous looking pointy things.  

I wasn't very scared like I am of waves but I didn't want to get too close either so after investigating for a while (and safely from the other side of the fence), I lay down on the soft grass and watched from an even safer distance as this herd of huge cattle wandered by.

Watching the cattle ~ from a safe distance!

And it is not just me that thinks they are a bit scary.  I heard Catherine say to Sean that she was scared they might break through the fence!  She said we would stay close to the car just in case one of them wanted to chase me!  I am sure I could easily jump into my cage without help if one of these monsters came running at me!

Luckily they didn't attempted any such thing so I could just enjoy the rest on the grass, far from the horrible waves and far enough away from the cattle to feel mostly safe.

MY FIRST VISIT TO A BEACH

Now my shots are finished (I think this refers to my injections, which don't really hurt I am glad to report), I have been out and about a lot and learning lots too.  I had my first visit to a beach and it did look very interesting to me.

Hmm ... this looks interesting!

I now know that a big playground with lots and lots of sand is called a beach and it is great fun to be on, even though I am on a lead and so can't run away and REALLY explore!  There are tons of great smells on the beach but you have to be careful and not sniff up the sand because it makes you sneeze.

Meeting another dog!

And before we got on to the beach I met another dog!  It was strange looking because it was white and had long hair so very different to me.  And another thing, even though it was much older than me, it was much smaller!  And she didn't have a lead on like me.  Maybe humans get rid of leads once you are older?  I really hope so!

My first beach was Rathmullan beach and it felt funny on my paws walking on all this sand that moves around under your feet.  But after the loose sand there is harder sand which is much easier to walk on.

I heard Catherine saying to Sean (Catherine and Sean are my pet humans by the way) that the tide was very high.  I looked up but couldn't see anything up high so I have no idea what a tide is.  Unless it is invisible?

Investigating the water

But I do know what waves are!  And they are very, very scary.  After the sand there is water but it isn't like the water in my bowl because it tastes very strange to me.

When I was trying out this water it and finding I didn't like the taste of it, all of a sudden burst up in my face!  Catherine and Sean found that funny but I didn't and I ran as fast as I could to get away from this strange water.

Escaping the waves!

"It's only waves" said Catherine as if waves were okay things.  Humans are really odd you know.  It's okay for them with their faces so far from the waves to say they are okay but try being down low like me and a big wave coming at you full force!

For the rest of my walk I kept on the other side of Catherine and Sean and as far away as I could from the horrible waves!

Birds are very noisy!

Once safely far enough away from the waves (and on the other side of Sean and Catherine just in case a wave came and got me!) I saw something I really wanted to investigate, birds!

They were black and flew right above me and landed on the beach making lots of noise!  Catherine said "oh, look Oscar wants to chase birds!" and they both laughed.  Humans seem to find a lot of things funny.  I just find them funny most of the time because they have some very strange ideas.

Chasing birds

I took off after them but couldn't get to them because of the lead!  Why can't my humans just take off my lead and let me do what I want?!  I could easily have caught those birds to play with.  Well, except they fly and I don't think I can fly.

After all that excitement it was back to the car and my cage where I took a very well earned snooze.  I think I like beaches but I hope the next one we go to won't have waves.

MY FIRST MINI-HOLIDAY

"I went on my first "mini-holiday" recently.  Catherine told me that we were going on a mini-holiday but I had no idea what that might be.  I now know, I know I love a mini-holiday.  

"Humans can be very strange creatures"

To get to our mini-holiday I had to travel in my crate.  It is behind Sean and Catherine in the car (the car for any other dogs reading, is a big noisy thing you get into and you end up somewhere away from home when the noise stops.  It can be frightening at first but once you realise that there is usually fun at the end, you get to like it.  But I still don't like the idea of jumping out of the cage once we stop ~ have you SEEN the drop down to the floor from it?!  Sean opens the door and puts my lead on and then says "Come on Oscar, jump" whilst giving a little tug on my lead.  It seems he expects me to jump out but there is no way I am doing that!  And anyway, he always puts his arms around me and lifts me down so why jump?  He mutters whilst doing this "you are going to have to jump when you are too heavy to lift you know!".  I just can't imagine being brave enough to jump at any stage!

Me and one of my little humans

So on our mini-holiday we picked up some of our family before we went.  Two of the little humans and a senior human, all of whom I like because they pet me and tell me what a good boy I am ~ even when I haven't done anything at all so it seems I am clever just sitting still or lying down!  

After we picked up the family, we went on a long journey, well it seemed long to me.  It wasn't as long as the journey from my old home though so that wasn't too bad.

The strange thing about being in the car is my humans now and then open all the windows ~ even if it is cold.  I gather it is something to do with me even though I don't want all the windows open.  I know it is something to do with me because I hear my name.  They say "oh no, Oscar has farted!" and then the cold wind blows all around the car at the same time they are complaining about the cold!  I tell you, humans are very strange creatures indeed!

Stones!  Not nice to walk on!

The mini holiday place was so exciting ~ except for the stones I had to walk on to get to the garden of course.  I didn't much like them but I had to walk on them to get to the garden, which was a very exciting place.  There were lots of new smells in the garden and all my humans played with me and we ran around having great fun.  

Sticks are good

I kept finding lots of twigs in the garden too.  Other dogs who don't know what they are I can tell them because I heard my humans saying.  They are bits that fall from trees, and trees it seems are these very big things that have lots of twigs on them.  You would think that as there are so many lying around they wouldn't mind me chewing on the ones I found.  But every single time I found one and had started to enjoy chewing it, it was taken from me!  I wasn't too bothered because I kept finding more and ran away from my humans to enjoy a wee chew before they caught up with me and took it from me.  Maybe they want to chew them themselves?  Who knows?

But we had lots of games in the garden and I even discovered how to bury my Nylabone!  I don't know how I knew to bury it but something came over me and I had this huge urge to hide it in the garden.  It made the humans laugh watching me ~ humans make this sound when they are happy and it is called a laugh which is very strange because they show their teeth and I used to think showing your teeth was a sign you were angry.  Humans can be very strange animals.

Me running in the garden!

In the garden I played something called "fetch".  It is like the game Catherine and I play at home with my tennis ball on a rope toy but this time it was on grass (it's soft green stuff which is nicer to walk on than stones!).  It took a lot longer to get to my toy when they threw it because the garden is very big, or it seems so to me because I am still only a puppy.

Mmm ... banana!

One of the very best things on my mini-holiday was something called banana.  We were all in the living room one of the nights and Sean gave me a piece of what they called banana.  It is really delicious and I could have wolfed it down in one!  

The next morning Catherine wanted me to sit and instead of giving me a treat of meat, she used slices of banana and I loved it so much I did this sit thing immediately when told knowing I would get a slice of that delicious banana!

This toy says banana!

The funny thing is the little humans have these toys (they don't chew them like I chew my toys) who say "banana" but they never give any to me!  The humans all find these toys very funny but I don't because they say "banana" but don't give any.

We were to go on a trip to a place called a beach but I can't tell you what a beach is because rain stopped play as Catherine said.  Maybe I will find out some other time.

After a couple of nights it was time to leave.  I know it's night because it gets dark and later I go into my crate and Catherine says "night, night Oscar" just before everyone disappears for a very long time and I don't see them until the morning again.  I know now what morning is too because it is daylight and Catherine comes into me and puts me outside to "go pee pee", which I do and then I get my "din-dins".  Din-dins is food by the way.

I had a great time with my humans on my mini-holiday and the very best of all is that I heard them saying we would soon be back there for another mini-holiday.  Then I was put in my crate and we went on a journey and guess what?  I was home again.  Cars are magical!"