Beach dog

On May 12, 2017 we were to head to our beach place for a week.
In March, I didn't think he'd still be with us.
As we made our way through April and we found a feeding regime that didn't cause issues, it seemed that he would still  be with us.
However, he was weakening, week by week.
I finally told my husband to cancel it. No way he would be able to handle a week at the beach.
For all the things working against him, Bugsy has never mastered calm, or going slow.  He just doesn't have the strength and stamina to do what he tries to do and I felt staying at the beach a week wouldn't be a good thing for any of us.

After it was canceled, I was sad. I mean really sad. The end of an era.
I was stuck on the idea that he'd never feel the sand in his toes again and that we'd never see his joy at being here again.
So I booked a couple of nights and here we are.

Canceling was correct, as was getting here asap.

Upon arrival it was all joy.
He was so happy. He made some new human and canine friends and zoomed in pure ecstasy.

Today was harder. His desire to be at the beach is as high as it ever has been, however his ability to enjoy it is low.  The strength just isn't there.

Spent about an hour at the beach this morning and he wanted to go in.
He slept for a hours and then DH wanted  to go to a cute local town.
We did but poor B was so tired and hot. It was too much.
But we did it and came home. And he slept some more.

He ate. We went to the beach. He did his "business", zoomed, chilled and  then wanted to go back in.
He quickly settled into a deep sleep.

Thinking back to Fall 2006 our first trip here, he was so insane. Unable to rest at all, finally after 13 non-stop hours, I put him in his crate and he fell asleep before I could slide the latch. He slept for 12 hrs and repeated his very busy, all day, OMG this is exciting activities, until once again he was crated.

Back to our new reality, he woke up in the morning and enjoyed a walk a brief zoomie before meeting a new dog he thought was great.
It was the right thing to cancel the week, The right thing to go for a couple of nights.
Still bittersweet but it is wonderful to feel like you are helping someone enjoy their final days