a99kitten's Musings

Fun, if cold and wet, SUMMER August morning. Sigh….coastal summers kinda blow. But the huskies aren’t hot and then we get a gorgeous September – November so oh well. But I usually start getting really annoyed by the weather around now until it’s over (usually mid-late August.)

When we first got to Mavericks we didn’t see any other dogs. Uh-oh – too early? But then 2 ladies came with their dog but he was a ball dog – dang. The huskies do not understand ball or stick dogs. They say CHASE ME!!! Why chase a stupid ball or stick?? Angelus chases the dog as they chase their object but then if the dog doesn’t engage after a couple tries, he is done trying.  Storm doesn’t even try. He used to chase balls a few times and then would sit down and shred it. So I didn’t want him to steal other dog’s toys! But he was *usually* pretty good about that.

I tried getting them to walk down the beach but neither really had any interest. I think they wanted to stay by the beach entrance so they wouldn’t miss any new dogs coming in. Then we saw a group of people and dogs that we knew from past visits to Mavericks come around the cliff from the other side/beach. And then they decided it was OK to go down there and check it out. It was the Scottish Deerhound, a couple other spazzy dogs and then Grommet the boxer.

Ohmygosh – Stormy and Grommet were playing and playing and playing. They were having such a good time. And me without my iPhone today to video it :( Stoopid Mom. Grommet’s Mom was telling me how Grommet had a tussle with a really large husky awhile back so he is usually pretty skittish around huskies but he was doing great with my guys, especially Stormy (Angelus was mostly mixing it up with the other dogs.)

Storm and Grommet were tearing around, chasing each other and then other dogs would start in the chase too. I get a little stressed because I don’t want Stormy to get take out accidentally since the other dogs all outweigh him by a lot.  But everyone did a great job of not taking each other (or us 2-legged creatures) out.

When it was time for Grommet to leave and his Mom leashed him up, Stormy wanted to follow them out.  It was so sad – Stormy got so bummed his friend had to leave. After that, Stormy wasn’t so interested in staying. What a goober. He was probably kind of tired too after all that running and playing. So after a few attempts at walking further down the beach and only a couple small dogs coming in, that the huskies had no interest in playing with, I said who wants to go? Storm turned around like “Let’s Go!” and he led the march back to the car. And when I say march – I mean it.  The kid could out-march a battalion :) Angelus likes to dawdle on the way back. Sniff, pee, sniff, pee. Storm – he marches. Focus. Stay on target!  He would have made a great X-Wing pilot :)

I love watching them have fun. They are the best boys.

Had another fun trip to Maverick’s with the huskies this AM. I slept in so we didn’t get out of the house until 7am. But we were still the only ones out there except the illegal clam-diggers (hate them.) I assumed since it was so hot yesterday, and supposed to be today as well, that more people would be out early. Guess not.

Once we got out to the point, a couple people came out with dogs on leashes. No one that Angelus looked particularly interested in playing with. We did find some fun tide pools for them to soak in and sniff for stuff in. It was super low tide, even lower than yesterday, so tons of tide pools and beach to investigate.

Once we made it back to the other beach, more dogs were starting to arrive – yay! Some dogs from yesterday and some new ones. We thought the chocolate lab puppy, Cocoa, (she LOVED Angelus) was there but as we got closer it turned out to be a different puppy – her name was Kona. She immediately started following the huskies around. Puppies seem to love Angelus. :)

Angelus played and ran and tried to steal balls and lined up for treats from other Moms :) Stormy had to stay on leash (combo of boo-boo still healing from his surgery and he gets a bit more agro when there are a lot of dogs around – he does better with 1 or 2.) He really wouldn’t leave my side if he was off leash anyway so he doesn’t seem to mind.

Once it seemed that Angelus was done and tired we started heading back down the beach to go to the car. There is this big set of rocks that, at low tide, you can walk around from/to another beach and we started going that way. All of a sudden you hear this thunder and from around the rock come 4 greyhounds running full speed. It was SO cool looking. They tore past us and Angelus took off after them. He must have flipped some kind of Hyperdrive switch because he caught up to them going SO fast. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him run that fast in his life. It was very impressive. I mean, huskies run and all but these are greyhounds running top speed. True, in the sand but still. Fast dogs. I wish I had it on video. I was quite proud of my running husky :)

They all came to a stop when they reached the other group of dogs (that we just left) and much wrestling and running (after a cool dip in the water) occurred again.

Then a female Malamute showed up. So, so, sweet. Her name was Faron and she is 5. She was bigger than Angelus. Her Mom didn’t let her off-leash. Northern breeds are runners/roamers – I only recently started letting Angelus off-leash when we are at the beach. And only then when we are at “safe” beaches – far, far away from roads or any traffic. Now that he is 9 he listens to me more ;) And doesn’t feel the intense urge to roam. Having said that, he would take off to chase any type of critter. Northern breeds require leashes. It’s not a training issue. Anyway, this malamute was awesome. Her Mom would let her wade into the water up to her belly and the Mom just walked right in with her. She came prepared with surf booties so she could take her dog into the water. She knew her buddy needed the cool water too. What a good mom :) Faron started howling and talking so the boys responded. All the people on the beach were laughing and saying how awesome that is :) Husky (or Malamute) talking is the best. I cannot handle much barking (which they don’t do) but LOVE the howling and talking. Although it does scare some people. They think it’s aggressive. Those are dumb people.

After some more playing, with Storm even playing with a little black dog named Gree and another female boxer, we decided to head back. On our way, around that same set of rocks, comes this little black and white dog who essentially looks like a mini husky** (which is not a real breed other than maybe some whack job trying to breed/make one) mixed with Pomeranian. I have read about these dogs. They are called Klee Kai. It’s a newer breed. I’m not a fan of making new “designer” breeds or of breeding larger dogs with smaller ones just so you can have mini versions. Not a fan at all. But that’s my own personal opinion.

This little doggie was very cute and sweet and a tough little guy. He thought he belonged with Angelus and Storm and started following us. His Dad had to chase him down and get him from his new found pack :)

We met up with a few more labs, a standard poodle and a few other dogs. It definitely seemed that the boys were pooped and ready to go home. Got to the car, gave them water and toweled them off. Put Storm in the car and then went to lift Angelus into the car when he backed up and looked at me like “what? I thought we were just getting water and dropping the kid off. I want to hang out more!” Dude I say. You’ve been playing like a puppy for 2 hours. Your brother wants to go home and it’s getting warmer out. He begrudgingly let me pick him up and put him in the car with a definite look of “hrmph”.

What a 9-year old puppy he is :) A another good morning was definitely had by all.

**Wikipedia’s entry on Miniature huskies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_Siberian_Husky

This whole things annoys the hell out of me because there is no actual real breed as a miniature husky. I might rant about this subject later :) but this line cracked me up when I read it because, while true, Storm protests STRONGLY on a daily basis against this “fact” as pure fiction meant to starve hungry huskies! : “Obesity must be guarded against as well, as the dogs were originally bred to subsist on smaller quantities of food than dogs of a similar size.”