A Guest Post by Arthur

Our humans were up early on Sunday morning and went out. I watched them drive off in the car. It had a trailer on the back with two of the sheep in. When they came back they didn't have the sheep with them.

John and Sue seemed excited and I soon twigged what was going on. They were getting the beach bag out - towels, poo bags, a water bottle, our leads. Me and Boris were bouncing up and down in excitement and jumped into the car as soon as they opened the back door. In the last month we have been to two different beaches and we reckoned we might be going back to one of them again. Either there or to the vets, which wouldn't be so good.
After quite a long drive we got to a place called Old Hunstanton where we got out of the car. We had to be on our leads for a little while but then we went down a lane and the ground turned sandy. We met some other dogs. One of them looked just like Boris.
We hadn't been here before, but suddenly ahead of us there was miles and miles of sand.

Boris went running around like a mad dog but in the end he came back and then we ran around with some other dogs for a while. All the dogs are so friendly when we go to the beach and their humans seem friendly too.
The sea was miles away and Boris was making the most of every bit of space. I ran about for a bit but my legs are a lot shorter than his and I don't know where he gets all his energy from. We all walked right down to the edge of the sea. Sometimes the sand was dry but some bits were very sploshy. Boris covered much more ground than the rest of us in his hunt for sticks - he has decided this is his main purpose in life. Many of the things he ran off to investigate were just lumps of rock or seaweed. The soaking pieces of wood that he did find just fell part in his mouth, but this didn't stop his efforts! I don't know what he sees in sticks.

Boris enjoyed sprinting through the puddles and even managed to soak John at one point. I was more cautious as I am a lot shorter and the cold water gets on my belly.

Despite the number of dogs who had bought their humans to enjoy the beach, there was acres of space. Boris and I met quite a few other dogs and introduced ourselves to a few of the owners too.

I don't really understand why out of all the dogs we have ever met, Boris stands out from all the rest as the dog who just goes haring around all over the beach. Most embarrassing is when he does his rolling in the wet sand trick. I just ignore him. I don't know why he wants to make himself so bedraggled and filthy.

On the way back Boris spotted someone with a ball and went running over doing his cute face throw-the-ball look, bouncing up and down with his tongue hanging out. The other dog was bigger than Boris but when the owner threw the ball Boris was the fastest. He got the ball and ran around victoriously. He wouldn't give the ball back for quite a while, but nobody really seemed to mind, even the other dog. Somehow when Boris is naughty everybody seems to find him cute. He's always getting al the comments about his good looks. I think he just looks like a giant teddy bear that has come to life.

We had some channels of water to cross on the way back too. I was brave and paddled across a couple, but my little legs were getting tired and I was getting cold, so I trotted along next to Sue occasionally whining until she picked me up and carried me onto the dry sand.

We got back to the car without too much further ado, although Boris did join a tour of the lifeboat station and went trotting off into the boathouse with a group of humans. John had to go and get him back.
Boris and I laid together in the back of the car. On the way back we stopped at a place called Sandringham. There weren't many dogs there and then we saw a sign saying that it could be dangerous for dogs to walk there in the autumn. Boris was very disappointed as it was full of sticks.

Then we stopped again and had to get out of the car. We went into a strange building called The Feathers where John and Sue had a drink and a nice lady brought them plates of human food. Me and Boris were tired so we mostly just laid on the floor under the table. Some other people came in too and they had a dog with them. I didn't know we were allowed in human places like this. I wasn't so sure about the other dog. I kind of wanted to meet him but I was a bit scared too so I tried to make some quite scary noises but they just came out as scared whimpers. Joh gave me a big cuddle and I felt safe.

When we eventually got back to the farm we were all very tired indeed. Boris and I had a nice long sleep on our sofa. We even let Gerry come up with us too.

It's a dog's life.

In the evening my humans tried to comb my hair but I squeezed under the sofa and wouldn't come out. I hate being brushed.