Sunset musings

Just sat on the beach and read for an hour or so and had the best time people watching. First there was an older man with his little white scruffy dog when I first went out who looked at me quite guiltily. Clearly his dog had pooped and he had no plans to pick it up. He pretended to be looking for something for a few minutes and then sort of nonchalantly returned to the path to his house. Don't want your dog to poop in front of yours of course!

Then a woman came out of the pathway .... the beach is accessed by these concrete pathways that sort of meander between houses and I keep forgetting when I go out there and sit that this is so. Not as private when everyone is coming and going from this one point. Anyway, she came out with her dog and she was dressed in a long black coat, a hate with a plume and golf shoes. Strange get-up to say the least (I was dressed in a sweatshirt SITTING on the beach, to say she was overdressed is understating, believe me). She meandered off and then a father and son walked by. It was fascinating to see how he moved his arms -- they kind of flopped aimlessly at his sides -- like he wasn't using any muscles to control them. Then I could see that the son had the same movements, just less obvious. He also had his toes pointed outwards while he walked. Sort of like he was kidding.

Then a youngish couple walked by with their puppy. Not a little puppy, let's say 8 months old, appeared to be a lab mix. Cute, and he came up to me and I petted him and the woman threw a tennis ball. The dog didn't even glance at it. So the man tried to show the dog how to run to the ball; and I, not really believing what I was witnessing, laughed. The man explained that the dog, named Randy, was not very good at fetch. I said that they should count their blessings, bury the ball and find out what else the dog was interested in. But the man said oh no, if he would fetch the ball everything would be fine.

Well, I disagree wholeheartedly! I have two labs who are ball-a-holics and I would be thrilled with a dog that scorned the ball. The man was clearly hoping that the ball fetching would solve the fact that the dog was totally untrained. For when I stood up to leave a litte later, the dog came bounding over to me and didn't listen to their cries of "Randy, get over here!" "Randy, get the ball, watch daddy chase the ball." (Seriously.)

I made the dog sit while they trotted over to retrieve him (they were quite good at it I must say, better than the dog was at fetching the ball) and they asked me how I had done it. I said I pushed on her butt. I didn't point out the verbiage on the sign at my left that stated that only dogs under "voice command" were allowed on the beach!

The sun was setting and so I had to leave my little paradise of oddities. I will of course, return tomorrow with a notebook in hand to record such things. The woman in the long coat is a total book character. Loved the golf shoes. On the beach.

And hopefully Randy will be there with his people, continuing to teach them how to fetch him.