on the beach

I have to report another Freddie adventure; once again the caper took place at the edge of edges; where Fremantle meets the ocean at South Beach.

On Monday the temperatures soared suddenly and unexpectedly and when 5 o-clock arrived what better place to visit. Rang my friend and we soon had our bathers on. At first all went according to plan. The ocean was an inviting cool release from the furnace the house had become. Freddie was happy retrieving his ball and paddling away at top speed, tail up. Because the day had heated up so quickly it had taken the population by suprise and the beach and carpark were practically empty. The beach however was far from empty of flies and they were definately the down side of the excursion. There had been no warning on the weather forecast so people hadn't factored a swim into their afterwork activities. We walked slowly up the beach keeping our toes wet and Freddie occupied. He did his customary thing of rolling around in the sand after a swim. Not a pretty sight esspecially with a swarm of black insects hovering around. We walked towards the groyn and Freddie ran here and there, finally getting left behind playing chasey with a labradoodle. I cast a look back and notice he is surrounded by two or three dogwalkers - I wonder why, surely he's not that interesting? A woman breaks away and runs towards us to convey the unwelcome news that Freddie is eating a blowfish! I run - yes run - back to the scene of the crime. He's definately found something suitably disgusting to eat and is very resistant to me easing it from clenched jaws. All the flies on the beach seem to have congregated around his head and I battle through them to grab his collar and wrench him from his deadly and foul smelling supper. Now, Freddie's history is one of abandonment. I retrieved him from a dog pound a couple of years ago but by that stage certain habits had been inground into his personality - one being the neccessity to be constantly focussed on food. He'll eat anything. So bearing this in mind I reason that he's probably grown up on blowfish. But when we finally get him home and washed and I look up blowfish on the net I find that they are extremely poisonous and potentially deadly. I keep checking Freddie for signs of paralysis setting in. Poor dog isn't allowed to rest. After 24 hours of vigilance I reacon he's out of danger and it probably wasn't a blowfish anyway.