Beach Blanket Chuy

Last Saturday Rene and I took Chuy to a dog beach in the LBC. Normally dogs are not allowed on beaches; there are only a handful that allow dogs on a leash, and an even smaller number that allow dogs to roam free. A portion of the Belmont Beach in Long Beach allows dogs to roam free, and this is sectioned off by orange cones. There’s a few ground rules: dogs must be registered with the city, be up-to-date on their vaccinations and rabies shots, and owners must clean up after their pets. Other than those rules it’s pretty relaxed, and most of the dogs in the beach were having fun chasing waves and going after tennis balls.

Chuy wasn’t like the other dogs. He was a real priss: at first he wouldn’t go play with the other dogs and would only hang out with us in the sand. Other dogs came by to say hi (meaning they sniffed his butt and the really friendly ones attempted to mount him) but Chuy wasn’t having any of it. Chuy always sniffed back but he never went off to play with his new friends. They overwhelmed him. My dog is a real priss.

Rene and I decided to walk around the beach so Chuy could get some exercise. It was fine until Chuy got distracted and after wandering off a few feet became utterly lost. He’d crane his neck to look for Rene and me, as if we’d abandoned him at the beach. He had this worried look on his face even though we were only a few yards away from him. We had to keep calling his name every time he wandered away so he’d stop worrying so much.

After a while we started inching closer to the water, hoping Chuy would take the hint and jump into the water. Instead, he stayed right at the edge of the beach, almost to the water but not quite. He acted like his paws would fall off if they touched the water. Rene and I thought about carrying him to the water and dropping him in but we didn’t want to traumatize him. Chow Chows were bred for many things but a love of water was not one of them. I don’t blame Chuy; can you imagine having to wait for this much fur to dry?

(More pictures here)

Oh, and before we visited the beach Rene bought a truck from an old man in Carson. His name was Jerry, and he lived in a nice trailer park across the street from the Carson Sheriff Station, pictured here:

Does this place seem familiar to you? If you watch Reno 911, it’s the police station exterior from the show. And you know that trailer park where Lt. Jim Dangle lives? It’s here:

It's featured in that episode where Lt. Dangle asks Officer Jones to help him move from one trailer to another.

Here's a picture of Rene's truck:

It's not new but it'll help him get around when he's not tooling all over town in his motorcycle. He said that riding a bike got old after a while because he was always carrying things on his back and not having any place to store his stuff. Now he'll have a lot of storage space and a vehicle that can haul stuff to the beach. I guess the next thing on his list is that surfboard or kayak he's been talking about.