Our son-in-law’s parents live in beautiful Emerald Isle, North Carolina, a small beach town on the outer banks.
Hubby and I vacationed there a month before Sampson joined our family and two years later we brought Sampson along. Sampson really enjoyed walking, running and playing on the beach.
The beautiful beach in Emerald Isle, North Carolina
I’m not a beach person per say. I love walking on the beach at dawn and dusk, but to spend the day at the beach, laying out in the sun or swimming in the ocean, well it’s just not my thing. Hubby does not care for the beach either, unless he is fishing, but he will humor me and walk the beach with me sometimes.
When the opportunity to bring Delilah to Emerald Isle arose, I was super excited. If she enjoyed the beach half as much as Sampson had, she was going to be in for a good time. When we vacationed with Sampson it was off season so we had a little bit of leeway with the leash, but with Delilah we were going in season, so I purchased two 30-foot leashes so the dogs could have a little bit of freedom.
So this is what you’ve been babbling about? It’s just a giant water bowl.
The ocean draws me to it when I am near, and after a 15 hour ride, I was ready to stretch my legs. After unpacking the car the first thing we did was grab my son-in-law and his sister and head to the beach with the dogs (our daughter stayed back at the house with our 18 month old grandson.) Not knowing Delilah’s background, I had no idea if she had ever been to the beach or not, or how she would react. The anticipation was building and I just couldn’t wait.
Why is this water bowl chasing me?
We arrived at the beach late in the afternoon. The bulk of the touristas had left for the day, which turned out to be a good thing as there were relatively few people to witness my humiliation.
After traipsing through the deep, dry sand we arrived at our destination, the shallow, harder packed sand. We stood there taking it all in, the sight, the sound, the smell that is the amazing ocean…and the sea gulls.
I’m not sure if Delilah had ever seen a sea gull before, but apparently the sight was enticing enough for her to want to give chase. If you walk dogs, odds are your dog has gotten the drop on you with a six foot leash and given your arm a really good tug, it’s enough to pull you off your feet at times.
Delilah had 30 feet.
I am living proof that a four legged dog can go from six feet to thirty feet in a matter of seconds. The ensuing jerk was so hard that I remember lurching forward, and almost landing on my knees. Back then Delilah was much larger than she is now. There was probably only about a 30 pound difference between her and me.
Some things are instinctive for me:
- I swallow food wrong and reflexively cough.
- Someone cuts me off on the highway, I flip them the bird.
- The dog steps on my toe and I jump back and curse.
Dropping the leash when my dog decides to chase a seagull is apparently not on my list of reflexes.
So there I am, flying down the beach, my two little legs trying to keep up with four very fast legs. I’m running, but not totally of my own volition. Apparently my legs reflexively know to move, but listen, I’m not a runner. Honestly if I weighed a little less and had a floppy hat, I’d probably have been a kite behind this dog.
Do you see what that dog is dragging? Is it a kite?
My breath is coming in gasps, yet I’m still managing to scream, “Help, help, help me.”
Do you think any of the people that were with me came to my aid? No, not one. (I think Hubby might have yelled, “Drop the leash.”) But really, who could hear or think at that point?
Finally after what seemed like hours but was in fact probably a minute or two, my legs just gave out and I pitched forward in the sand.
I think the dead weight is what stopped her.
I took a few seconds to gather my composure, grateful for the darkening sky to cover the redness of my face and we made our way back up the beach.
I think that was the only time Delilah made it to the beach that trip.
Oh my goodness, that’s quite a story! By the way, your ocean/water bowl analogy was very clever! Hopefully next time Delilah goes to the beach – if there’s a next time 😉 – that she won’t pull you along like that!
Lucky girl, D. I wish I were strong enough and big enough to get a human kite! That looks like fun! Plus Mom is laughing and saying the word, “no beach for you!”
Love and licks,
Cupcake
I have to laugh at the visual story you weave there. I think you need little dogs, LOL
I bet Delilah had the most amazing time – brownie points to hubby though for shouting advice. I think I would have been too busy laughing to get any words out! (Um, with not at right!!)
Oh. My. doG!!! I can see it now!! Delilah chasing the seagull and you trying in vain to keep up. I have to laugh cuz It could easily happen to me with Ducky. She may only weigh 25 pounds, but my little Ducky Doodle Demon Dog is STRONG and FAST! She could easily yank the leash right out of my hand.
Barley always wonders why the water is chasing her, too, when Lake Erie is choppy and wavy. Sounds like Delilah had fun even if it wasn’t quite as fun for you!
Kind of like Bailie with more poundage? Mom is so used to being pulled and dragged, she has built up some pretty good muscles to deal with it. Katie was the first with her 80 lbs to really take Mom for rides! We can all walk real nice, but if we need to get somewhere, we pull. Loose leash walking all the time has never been a priority for Mom to teach us.
Oh goodness! I have to laugh, but I’m glad you weren’t hurt! My sis in law tore the muscles in her shoulder when her mastiff took off after something, and she had the leash wrapped tight around her hand. She was off work (she’s an O.T.) for like 4 months! Be careful out there!!
THIS is why I like dogs Blueberry’s size. A lab mix I fostered pulled me off my feet many a time while hiking – she is the reason that I have 2 funky toenails that have never recovered from being so damaged they fell off more than once (TMI?). I have a long leash like you used for Delilah that I use for Blueberry and the worst I got was a leash burn on my palm. Coyotes passed RIGHT IN FRONT OF US once and she went from zero to 60 in about 2 seconds flat. I have her leash attached to my belt loop, but had it in my hand anyway to try and reel her back in. Once it was over, I calmly told Blueberry I didn’t appreciate her injuring my hand like that.
Such s beautiful place. Don’t you just love the beach
Lily & Edward
You paint a beautiful and funny picture in this post. It’s so shocking when they take control of the leash so quickly. They don’t give us any time to react. I’m glad no one was hurt in the making of this story.
Hahahaha!! So glad you weren’t hurt but what a hilarious story! 🙂
LOL! That is exactly what would happen to me, except I would know that I should drop Hailey but would be too afraid she would run away.
It looks like Delilah loved the beach a lot more than you guys, lol! We’ve taken Haley to OBX many times and I think it’s her favorite place on earth. She loves the wind, waves and even the little crabs that come out at night. Our favorite thing to do is off-roading on Ocracoke where Haley can run off-leash with nobody around for miles. Glad you had some fun!
I was so excited about your OBX trip, I forgot to leave my name, lol! 🙂
A kite huh? Well I do love the photos so I am glad you landed long enough to take some.
I’ve often thought I need to take my dogs to the ocean. As I’m sitting here laughing I am having second thoughts about that.
oh my what a story, if you didn’t like the beaches before I’m sure you don’t like them now.
Up front I’m gonna admit…I’m clearly a terrible person. Your vivid prose had me howling with laughter-you know the kind where you’re laughing so hard no sounds comes out? I’m sorry for your humiliation and glad you were physically hurt but boy was that funny. It took me a couple moments to compose myself before I could actually comment. Hope your dignity of being pulled down by the D-dog has fully recovered and if it’s any comfort, know it’s happened to each and everyone of us whose dogs weigh over 40 pounds. Just wondering out loud, have you thought of knee pads? 😉