Walking the Dog on Sanibel

Today the weather was so nice, we wanted to spend some time at the beach.  Little Puffin needed a bath anyway, so we took him with us.  He always seems to find a way to get sand all over himself.  On the way over, he stayed busy watching the scenery.

He especially enjoyed watching all the bikers.

We walked out to the beach at resident access 2.  The first thing I noticed was two people, relaxing, in beach chairs. 

(I thought to myself, maybe Harry and Lidy, but then reality clicked in and I knew they weren't here.)

The tide had been very high and had left lots of shells strewn about.

Puffin was excited. 

He hadn't been to the beach for a while.
He stood still, looking at the water like it was all new to him.

Then, when we started walking, he thought it was his job to sniff every shell on the beach.

And....sniff every piece of driftwood,

along with everything else.

He had a hard time understanding why the birds wouldn't come over to play with him.  I think he was a little disappointed.

Hmmm, maybe it was because he

had sand all over his face.

Dad asked him if he wanted to walk in the water.  He was going to, until a wave came up and he felt the cool water touch his paws.

He jumped backwards like he'd been

hit with ice water.

After that, he decided it was time to move on.

Then he saw a ledge and thought with a little digging, he might just find something good in there.

The waves were rolling in slowly,

but some of them were pretty big.

There were several people bent over, like they were finding shells coming in, up the beach a little further, around access 7.  But Puffin was getting a little tired after we had walked from access 2 to access 6, so we turned around to go back.  On the way, he had to stop to watch a couple of birds that were running along the high tide line.  They didn't have time to play either. :(  Oh well, we were leaving anyway.

             

A friend who comes to Sanibel frequently,  impressed me with a recent blog  post.  I hope you will take time to read it.

http://snugharborbay.blogspot.com/2011/08/any-soldier-program.html

Sunday Sanibel Warming

This afternoon we went to resident access 3 on West Gulf Drive.  The sun was out and the temperature had warmed a little to 62, which was nice compared to the 41 degrees and cold wind last night.  It actually felt pretty warm on the beach. 

There were some shells in this area and several people were searching as they walked along.  I'm sure there were a lot of nice small ones, but I only picked up 3 small ones, because I didn't walk very far or look too closely. 

The reason I didn't spend too much time walking:

Today was the trial to see how Puffin would take to his new carrier pack.  He actually seemed to like it, so I didn't want to keep him in it too long the first time.  It was sure easier to take pictures with both hands, rather than holding him with one arm and the camera in the other hand.  He was constantly wiggling when I was holding him, in the pack he didn't do that. I think maybe he felt a little more secure, plus it was probably more comfortable than when I had a death grip on him to keep from dropping him.

Several of you have asked what kind of dog my Puffin is. He is a Lhasa Apso, weighs 5 lbs and will be 4 months old on Friday. Potty training is going very well, handling his little spit fire temper and getting him to understand he isn't the boss, not so good. But, we're working on that. He lives for his treats, so that makes it all a little easier.

When we got back home, he was happy to run and play with his toys.  After he wore out, he took a little break by laying on the bird's cage covers.

 

He and Lexus spent a little bonding time together.  Lexus was quite happy to stay in his carrier and talk to Puffin.  I don't think he understood why he got no answer when he kept saying, 'Hello'.