Vacation

McCoy left us for the Seattle area on Friday and I've been sort of down about it. He awoke around 11 p.m. on Thursday night with diarrhea and had to go up to Seattle anyway, so I felt worse since he wasn't well. To my amazement, we never had any accidents in the house or in the crate while he was sick. I hear the poor boy is still not feeling well, so I don't know what is going on with him. He was not around sick dogs, we rarely took him out of the neighborhood while we had him, so I don't know what he picked up. I hope it's resolved soon. I don't know where McCoy is other than I know he is with a co-leader of a group north of Seattle.

Meanwhile, Lyn and I are both on vacation this week and we were able to get out of town for 2 days. We took Ardella to the beach. It was a successful trip and I think Ardella enjoyed herself. Here we are when we first got to Cannon Beach:





Ardella was interested in the smells - her nose was on the ground constantly. I think she noticed the smells before she saw the ocean.



It's fun to dig in sand:



Tasting the water:



Noticing waves:



She enjoyed walks on the beach with Lyn and would start pulling toward the direction of the beach whenever we went outside.

We can't take Ardella into restaurants and public places, but fortunately Cannon Beach is pretty dog friendly and we took her into a pet store on the main street in town. There I bought her a new toy - it's stuffed, has a rattle in the tail, squeaker in the head, and it's made with some stretchable elastic so it's floppy and can be shaken, squeaked and tugged. She loved it. While we can't take Ardella into public places, there are some things she can do if we so choose, as demonstrated in the next picture. I do believe the girl enjoys her new pet status.



Ardella is lying on a sheet we brought with us from home. The idea is to get her to always lie on the sheet so if she gets on furniture or the bed, she lies down on that sheet and when we have company the sheet goes on the floor and that's where she always lies down.

Ardella enjoyed meeting new people and was a wonderful traveling companion. She didn't seem to enjoy the car ride, but recovered quickly when we reached our destination.

As far as I know, we introduced Ardella to the beach and I am delighted that she enjoyed it so much.