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| Drew, Veronica, and Carol untangle the first hounds to arrive at the beach! This was Dennis' first beach visit and he was pumped to the max! Bettina, Stari, Melissa, Love, Lady Flame, and Toby are old hands at being beach bums! (Click on any photo for a larger view.) |
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| Kristin and Herschel arrived next. It was a pleasure to meet them on their first visit to Popham Beach. |
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| Bille, Sheila, and Kent arrived next with Skyy. They were followed by Jeremy and Drena with their 3 loverly patriotic hounds: Honor, Valor, and Freedom. |
The hounds were so happy to see each other and we enjoyed welcoming new people to our big extended hound family. Bille (our favorite professional pet photographer) organized this shindig. We had a lovely expanse of low tide beach to walk, and walk we did!
Carol, our hound mentor (along with Veronica), has been walking the beach with various hounds for many years. She is like the pied piper of hounds...
Sheila adds a ton of spark and life to any party. She took it upon herself to run lots of hounds through the surf. Skyy is an old hand at running through the waves, but Lady Flame wasn't too sure about it;-)
We made our way toward Fox Island, which is located at the end of a sand bar at low tide.
Our goal was to climb up Fox Island for a photo shoot by Bille. The first stop was on part of the island that overlooked the beach. You can see Bille already at work;-)
Veronica, Bettina, and Dennis were the first to be photographed. Bettina happens to be one of Bille's first Greyhound crushes, and she absolutely adores him back! (Mind you, this is my quick snapshot, not Bille's professional one. See his on Axell Photography.)
Even Toby took a turn at being photographed! Bille got a great photo of our biggie boy;-) But, this was as far as we could take Toby on the rocks. It is too difficult for Toby to navigate all the uneven surfaces, as he is mostly blind, and he cannot see where his foot placement is. So, back down to the beach we went.
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| Lady Flame's coloration and patterning make her blend in perfectly with the sand and rocks of Fox Island. She is our super model! |
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| Toby is the most gorgeous greyhound we have ever seen. He should be on the cover of GQ (Greyhound Quarterly;-) |
So, we went down on the beach to photograph our pups and to get some video of the ocean waves. I love photographing our hounds. They are both easy on the eyes, and I practiced holding onto their leashes while using my new wide-angle lens to see if I could get their entire body into the shot. Success;-)
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| Kent assisted Carol with her hounds up on the island. |
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| A gaggle of hounds on the island granite. They get along so well that they don't hesitate to rest their heads upon each other's backs;-) |
After a short time, Drew took Lady Flame back up onto the island to hobnob with the rest of the hounds. He got a few snapshots and participated in a greyt group photo by Bille.
Then, it was time to head back down to the beach for some water time!
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| Skyy and Stari were the first to romp in the waves with Sheila. |
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| Skyy is an official water dog! |
Sheila had a blast with more hounds as she frolicked through the waves. She had us laughing continuously...
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| Dennis and Bettina lead the way back along the sand bar. |
We had to keep an eye on the incoming tide as the sand bar gets covered at high tide. So, it was time to start heading back to the "beach proper."
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| This horse was incredibly tolerant of the gaggle of hounds. |
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| Stari is fascinated by the horse. |
Stari couldn't contain himself and had to sample the horse's big schnoz, much to everyone's surprise;-)
Freedom and Valor were especially interested in the horse, and were better behaved around it than Stari;-)
Our lunchtime feast was calling to us, so we headed back down the beach to the picnic area.
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| Happy Birthday, Queen Bettina! |
We were being constantly reminded, by Bettina, that it was her "barkday" (birthday), and that we were supposed to celebrate it with gusto, which we did!
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