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Dog Beach Redux

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September 13th marks the third annual National Pet Memorial Day. I didn’t even know there was a National Pet Memorial Day, and it took a bit of digging to determine how this day came about (it appears to have been designated by the International Association of Pet Cemeteries), but just so you know, it’s the second Sunday of September.

I wrote a post about Emmett’s last trip to Dog Beach before I knew it was his last trip to Dog Beach, and I never did post it. It seems like as good an excuse as any to finally get to share it:

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We call this “living life to the fullest.” Otherwise known as, it’s another gorgeous day so why not hit the beach again?

We were joined in the adventure by my trusty tech Amber, and her wirehaired dachshund Sergeant.

He likes to play hula hoops with his frisbee.

It was busy, per usual.

While Sergeant was content to watch from the shore, Emmett plunged on in. The water was fine.

This dog won the award for coolest looking dog at the beach:

So, I’m assuming basset and dalmatian. He definitely had a Basset demeanor (fortunately). šŸ™‚

A good time was had by all.

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  2. I have to tell you about Lucas. He’s the reason that Emmett popped into my head this weekend. One of my brother’s neighbors at the lake has this beautiful Golden with a white face who loves to balance cookies on his nose and sing while his best friend plays the harmonica. He was so full of life and feisty that it surprised me to find out he was twelve years old. Near the boat docks they have a beach area set up with chairs and plenty of sand. Lucas would walk in up to his belly and wait for the tennis ball to be thrown into the lake, then he would swim out however far he needed to and retrieve it. I could see a bit of Emmett in him as he sat there patiently waiting to eat the cookie on his nose.

    I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately just because I’m facing the two year mark of Blade’s passing. Hard to believe it’s been two years, isn’t it? But this Saturday…yeah. Being at the lake around the same time as his last time is bittersweet. I think about how much he would have loved playing with Lucas and swimming in the beach area.

  3. I just discovered your blog through Twitter and have started reading about Emmett. What a dog! My “Emmett” was a black Lab named Shaq. We lost Shaq to bone cancer in March of 2007. As I read about Emmett, I remember Shaq and shed tears for both of them. I have pictures of Shaq on his last neighborhood walk (before I knew it was his last neighborhood walk), and he was carrying his huge stuffed animal the whole way like he always did. It’s bittersweet looking at those pictures. I think about Shaq every day, as I’m sure you do Emmett.

    Glad to have “found” you, as I enjoy reading your posts!

  4. We had a dog who passed away almost a year ago. We only had her for a little under 2 years. My partner’s father passed away after a very long battle with cancer, and we inherited his old cat, Tommy, and his 7 year old husky/border collie cross, Ziggy.

    Ziggy was a wonderful dog with an amazing personality. She loved to play, go for walks, and talk. When it was dinner time or walk time, she used to dance around the kitchen, I can still hear her claws clicking in rhythm. We loved her dearly, and she was one of the last remaining links to Drew’s late father. I can’t pretend to know the kind of pain he went through, losing his dad at such a young age (we were 20 at the time), but having Ziggy and Tommy with us definitely helped him feel better.

    She started to become bloated, which naturally concerned us since she was such a slim and active dog. We took her to the vet and he had us leave her there overnight so he could drain the fluid from her belly and take proper x-rays. He called us later that night to tell us he’d found a mass on her spleen, and advised that we do surgery. We agreed, and he said he’d operate on her first thing in the morning.

    He called us early the next morning to tell us he’d accidentally nicked one of her arteries, and she was bleeding to death. Since surgery is always a risk, I don’t blame our vet, but I can’t even put into words the sheer despair I felt when he told me that Ziggy was dying… and to have to wake Drew up with the news that his dad’s dog had to be put down because of an accidental arterial bleed.

    There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think of Ziggy. I see our puppy, and I can just imagine how much fun Ziggy would have had with her. I catch myself calling Chewy Piggy at times, which was our nickname for Ziggy. I miss her dancing, her funny games with her football, her gorgeous silver eyes, and the way she’d curl up to my chest at night. I slept with her favourite ball for weeks after she had passed, and I still get choked up when I see pictures of her, or the many videos we’d taken of her funny personality quirks.

    Missing Ziggy as much as I do doesn’t detract from what I feel for Chewy, I think it strengthens it, and I imagine in the coming months you’ll form a tight bond with Brody just like you had with Emmett. They’ll never be the same dogs, but each brings their own unique personality and love into your lives, and it truly is a blessing. I just wish we could have more time with them.

  5. That looks like doggie heaven! I don’t think there are any dog beaches in Alabama, but once I took Benjen to a beach in Florida. He hated the waves and then sneakily ate huge mouthfuls of sand when he thought I wasn’t looking. I would then have to chase him around yelling at him about not eating sand. Needless to say, his poops were unpleasant. lol