24 Sep:  Today is Bill’s 52nd birthday!  It’s wonderful to have him another year.  His wish was to go to the beach at Bibione yesterday.  Germana’s sister had told him the day before while they were out in the back yard gardening, about a new & special dog beach that we should go to.  She described it as being close to the faro or lighthouse & gave him directions on how to get there.  We laughed when she had told Bill that we should leave at alle 6 mattina.  I would not even be up by then.  She said that the German turisti & the Italian vacationers would all be gone home by now, as this was the end of summer.  For us it was the first time we had gone to the beach in quite a few years, except for last June when we went to the American beach at Camp Darby.  Bibione is only an hour away, whereas Darby is a 6 or 7 hour drive & we usually stay a few days.

  When my alarm rang I woke up very groggy at 7.  Then I ate cereal & drank tea & juice, while Bill packed our lunch, drinks & loaded the car.  He had to go upstairs to get the girls’ big kennel, making a rattle as he took it down from the top of the cabinet.  Upon hearing this noise the girls became very excited & started barking.  By 10 we were all loaded into our Mini & on our way with Bill driving.  We parked on the street across from some rather empty hotels, then walked across a small park, & then crossed over to a walkway towards the beach.  There was a concession stand with some people sitting around.  The walkway had paw prints on it, & to our left side was an estuary where we saw a woman in the water probably catching crabs.  So I picked out a place on the brown sand for us to stay, while Bill made 2 trips back to the car to get the rest of our gear.  At first the girls were angels just kind of looking around & being quiet, after all this was their first time ever at a beach!  They have in some ways led a sheltered life.  

We saw a couple with a red golden retriever type of dog who was barking while they seemed a little embarrassed.  As I took the girls closer to the water they seemed afraid of the waves & were trying to get away.  As we walked up on the beach the girls started barking & growling at almost everybody & at almost every dog.  I was so embarrassed!  It seemed like the longest time before Bill returned from the car with one folding chair & a few bags.  Then he left again for the car while I was I all alone with 2 barking, growling dogs who were pulling my right arm & shoulder off.  Today I am in terrible pain.  Then I call Bill begging him to hurry because I can’t control the dogs from hell.  Finally he returns with our beach umbrella & the other chair.  We save much money by bringing our own umbrella & chairs so that we don’t have to rent them for the day.  The truth is that because our pups are so badly behaved we must stay as far away as possible from other people & their pets.  

I had put sunscreen on me in an attempt to protect myself from the sun, but it didn’t work.  When I got home that evening I was as red as a beet, feeling hot & miserable.  On the beach we saw thin women with their bikinis, people walking & playing with dogs carrying sticks or rubber ball toys in their mouths.  Some people would throw a stick into the water, then their dog would splash in, retrieve the stick & bring it back to its parent to have it thrown again.  One woman with a German shepherd threw a pink toy that looked like a sea urchin with little knobby things on it.  The dog acted as if he loved this toy, nuzzling it in his mouth.  He was so good, not bothering anyone else like 2 small dogs that we know.   
     Bill decides to take the girls into the water for a swim.  So holding them by their leashes he walks them into the ocean, it’s all of a few feet deep.  I don’t really know, I wasn’t getting into it after I saw a giant dead jellyfish washed up on the beach not far from where we were.  It’s a good guess there are more of them from where that one came!  So as I watch the 3 of them with their backs turned towards me, Bill tries to get the girls to swim out, is he trying to drown them?  Well they’re no stupid little things, they live by instinct.  They immediately turn their tiny heads around, shore facing while doggy paddling.  I start uncontrollably laughing, cracking up while looking at this cutest thing.  The girls have this look on their face, kind of happy, kind of smiling, but with a resigned look like “let’s just keep paddling until we get out of this wet stuff with giant (not really) onde or waves, let’s head toward Mommy, hell Daddy’s on his own even if it’s his b’day tomorrow, he’s the one that got us into whatever this stuff is”!  So this process of their swimming with Dad while he holds onto them by their leashes is repeated a few mores times over the day, while in between we sit beachside or walk.  One time while they were swimming & I was taking their photos like the proud Mom & laughing, 2 Italian women walked by looking at them & laughing.  They said that the pups were afraid of the water & the waves, & I told them that this was their prima volta for swimming.  They thought that was really something!  Bill said that Ted was kind of floating with her thick downy hair, paddling kind of easy going, & Hon was swimming fast with her thin but muscled legs.

We walked toward another part of the beach where we saw a stream of water going into the ocean, this being the Adriatico.  It was so funny, a crab was flipping itself backwards to go into the ocean.  We saw 2 bearded collies running & playing, one was gray & white, the other was blond, being very bella dogs.  Their parents, a couple who were both thin & very suntanned had set up 2 small green tents, I guess for their dogs.  I didn’t want to get my sneakers wet so we didn’t cross over to this part of the beach.  I’m probably one of the few people who wear sneakers with socks only to have them fill up with sand.  It’s so much fun washing all this stuff in the machine trying to get all the sand out.  We could tell the real beach pros, they had on plastic bright blue or other brightly colored shoes that could be seen from a distance.  They look like flamingos or some other tropical or sea bird.  No washing nasty sneakers when they get home.    

Under our umbrella I sat & ate my sandwich, banana, & drank some juice.  By this time I felt dehydrated because we had not brought enough juice & I also felt too hot.  After all of their big day of swimming & barking & growling, which really tires out little dogs, not to mention the extreme stress on their Mother, the girls were hungry.
     We forgot to bring them any treats, so I gave them some bread from my sandwich.  After I ate they jumped into my lap, clawing my legs, thinking I wanted their wet, sandy, hot bodies all over me.  Then Bill ate.  By this time we were ready to go home.  What a day!

     When we arrived home, I ate a snack, took a much needed bath, went to bed at 19:00 without eating dinner.

sign for Bibione dog beach

Dad carrying pups out into the deep abyss

pups in water

pups 1st swim ever!

pups swimming

pups paddling toward the shore

adorable pups closer to shore & Mommy

Dad with tuggers on beach

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I must tell you what Ted did today.  We were out in the backyard on a bella giornata.  I looked by our one grapevine & noticed Ted was eating something.  When I went over to her, she was munching on a bunch of very ripe picolet grapes.  She was very happy & would have eaten all of them if I had not picked her up.  She sticks her adorable nose up into the air & wiggles it to smell things.  We usually get one large bowl of grapes to eat this time every year.  We are not like the snooty people who have a vineyard for wine.
     Then I saw Hon nosing over by the grapes, so I went & shooed her away, not wanting 2 small sick dogs.
     Later that evening we all went for a walk past the park & to Blackie's house & the clothing store.  We do not really know very many people in our town, so we make up names for the dogs that we see along our walks.