WOW!!!!! What a Christmas

COCO: Did we EVER have a GREAT Christmas!!! But, It wasn’t anything we had planned in advance.  See, Dad was in a good mood and thought that he would take us three girls for a ride to Playa. Hew made a couple of stops, each time stopping where he could park in the underground parking so we were shaded and cool.

JODIE: Yes, he is actually a pretty nice guy, but SO naïve. Still, he should have known better!

SANDY: You two are being cruel!!

COCO: Eh? You’ll get over it. I’ll start from the beginning. Dad wanted to take us for a ride. That’s simple enough to understand, right?

SANDY: OK, right, so far.

COCO: And we behaved ourselves pretty much, right?

SANDY: Well, except for Jodie always crawling onto Dad’s seat and drooling all over the window, steering wheel and the seat.

JODIE: Whoa there Sandy. Don’t take that tone with me! I ALWAYS jump in the front seat. I keep it warm for Dad.

COCO: Sure you do……and you even drool for him and rub your snout all over the window for him……gimme a break!

JODIE: Why not leave me alone and get back to your story.

COCO: OK…….so to get going, Dad opened the back of the Jeep and let us out of the camper. With great agility, we three leapt into the back of the Jeep and the trip began. It was a nice ride and we enjoyed being with Dad. As we returned, Dad mentioned “SUPPER”. Usually that really gets us going because there is NOTHING in the world more important than supper.

JODIE: Amen!

SANDY: Amen!

COCO: So now, Dad has us in a lather just waiting for our supper, or so he believes. Like Jodie said, so nice, but sooo naïve.

SANDY: Oh, boy, here comes the good part………

COCO: So Dad drove the Jeep up to the camper, got out of the car and opened the door to the camper……all the whi,e he kept mentioning “SUPPER”. I KNOW that he fully expected us to race into the motorhome for our food. SURPRISE……….SURPRISE!!! We three BOLTED for the beach!!!

SANDY: It was really a little mean…

JODIE: How can you say that, Sandy? You were in the lead!!! As I rounded the dive shop, you were already in the water!!!

SANDY: OK, ok, I admit it, I was off and running and I never looked back. I heard him yell for us and I can imagine what he looked like, standing there with his mouth wide open in disbelief.

COCO: Yessiree, it was quite a coup. I have been waiting and waiting for just such an opportunity and today fate looked down on us. AND….. we had a great time, did we not?

JODIE: Oh, we had a great time for a while. We were the center of attention on the beach until Dad arrived with the leashes.

SANDY: And the plastic bags.

COCO: Yeah, when that guy came over and told Dad that one of us had left “A DEPOSIT” near his kite-board, I could almost see the steam coming out from Dad’s ears.

SANDY: You have no compassion for the man!

COCO: I do, too, but sometimes you have to grab for the gusto.

JODIE: Perhaps, Coco, perhaps. But if you think about it, Dad and Mom always take us to the beach during the week and early in the morning, so we do not offend too many people. They also take us way down the beach where we are more secluded, except for a few people walking the beach.

COCO: Are you implying that there was something wrong with invading the beach, right in front of the restaurant, with hundreds of people , on a Christmas Day?

JODIE: I’m not IMPLYING….I’m STATING A FACT. I know, I’m in the same boat as you and Sandy and I ran to the beach also, but I suspect that this INCIDENT is going to come back to haunt us and we will not get the chance to bolt away again.

COCO: Wanna bet? We’ve done similar stunts before and eventually Dad forgets or trusts us more than he should………..and the next time that happens……I’m off. I could add that you and Sandy can join me or not, but I know and you know and I bet Sandy knows………….given the opportunity, a little opening, a lapse in Dad’s attention, and we are off, all three of us.

SANDY: Oh, now I feel so bad. I didn’t think. The door was open and I ran…………and it felt so good. It WAS nice playing with all the people in the water and having so many people take my picture.

JODIE: Well, that was our Christmas celebration. We had a nice ride in the car, a fast and furious romp to the shore, a bath, and supper. Aah, that all important supper……..Now…….I …….want……..to…….sleep.

JODIE, COCO, SANDY: Feliz Navidad!!!

Coco…….in trouble AGAIN!!!

SANDY: Don’t tell me that Coco is in trouble again!

JODIE: Of course, you know that she’s NEVER out of trouble for long. This time she has Dad a bit upset with her.

SANDY: Why is that?

JODIE: OK, do you know how you and I get to be “Walked” off leash?

SANDY: Sure…….Mom or Dad puts on the collar and leash and leads us to the road, then they unhitch the leash and off I go.

JODIE: Same here. I get to run free to “take care of business”, run a little and explore a little.

SANDY: Right, and for our Last Out before bedtime, I go out with out a collar or leash. In fact, I’m pretty sure that you do, too.

JODIE: Correct again! Do you notice that Coco ALWAYS goes out with a collar and leash, ALWAYS?

SANDY: Now that you mention it, yes. Why is that?

JODIE: The first reason is that without the leash, Coco would make a break for the beach in a heartbeat. This not MAYBE she would head for the beach this is that she MOST DEFINITLTY would head for the beach, and Mom and Dad don’t like to always be washing us off and drying us.

SANDY: OK, I get that, but I often head in the direction of the beach when I’m not on the leash myself.

JODIE: Then what happens?

SANDY: Then Mom or Dad calls me to go up the road and I turn and run up the road.

JODIE: Precisely!! That’s what I do, too. But Coco runs to another voice in her head and once she heads for the beach she is unstoppable. She puts her head down and races like a guided missile around campers, buildings, cars, whatever until she makes a bee line to the water. Then she races in the water and turns toward Mom or Dad or who ever is trying to catch her and she has this look that says “Aha, I made it and you couldn’t stop me, ha, ha.” Of course that tends to rile Mom and Dad because she will absolutely not come back until she is in the water. Now, on land, she may roam ahead a bit in the woods or trail, but when the folks say “Come”, she’ll come back. When water is in the area, she gets a bug up her butt and will only head for the water and nothing, but NOTHING will deter her.

SANDY: So, that’s why Dad’s a little cross with her the last few days?

JODIE: Oh, no! Coco went above and beyond to reach that point.

SANDY: So gimme the rest of the story.

JODIE: Well, only because you asked. We all get taken out several times a day for a pee or a poop. Right?

SANDY: Right!

JODIE: A couple of days ago, Dad walked Coco up the road and decided to try her off the leash, and Coco had a poop.

SANDY: So, that’s what I do every day.

JODIE: Let me explain. When we go out we make a poop. When Dad let Coco off the leash, she immediately went to the side of the road and HAD a poop, as in HAD a cookie, or HAD a snack.

SANDY: Surely you don’t mean that she ate………………

JODIE: That’s exactly what I mean. Now I might have had a bite of that once or twice myself, but NEVER in front of the folks, it grosses them out!

SANDY: Ugh, Ugh, Ugh, It grosses ME out. I’m kind of finicky about what I eat, and I’m gonna keep it  that way.

JODIE: Well, it seems to me that you were not quite as finicky last year at Hacienda Contreras after they got the Burro.

SANDY: As far as I’m concerned, this conversation is OVER!

JODIE: Fine, but it is what it is, like it or not!

It doesn’t get much better than this!

JODIE: I think that the girls and I have hit the jackpot here in Mexico. Most of you know that we’ve been swimming all over North America, but this place is Dog Heaven.

COCO: Yup, it’s heaven and there sure are a LOT of dogs here. Most of the dogs run free and there are no fights.

SANDY: Well, there is that little black dog that barks at us and the little brown one that bares his teeth………

JODIE: That was when we first got here, but they know us now and we all seem to get along. Some of them have been here a long time and we are new to them. Once we were introduced (sniffed) we all became friends.

SANDY: And the beach here is about as nice as a beach could be…

COCO: And the surf is….is…..fantastico! How do you like that little Mexican flair, fantastico?

JODIE: I think you’re losing it, Coco. If you think about it, we can hear English, Spanish, French, and German spoken by the people here. However, we three and all the other dogs here only speak Woof.

SANDY: Only speak Woof? How can you say that? I understand Mom and Dad when they say “cookie”, or “come”, or especially “supper”. Would we understand them if they spoke one of the other languages? They NEVER say “woof”.

COCO: Sandy has you there, Jodie. You are pretty smart, but sometimes you try to be too smart and you actually look stupid.

JODIE: OK, OK you two. I was trying to slip that one through. The truth is I do understand Mom and Dad, but I don’t understand Nicole, the French lady next door. I also don’t understand Deiter, the German guy two campers away. But I do understand what I’m supposed to. Now lets get back to the beach.

Here we are crashing through the surf!

And this is Jodi body surfing. Can you imagine what she could do on a surfboard?

And what is really great is that we will have at least another month of this. We wish all our friends, Riggs, Patch, Sadie, Tucker, and all the rest could be here with us. There is enough beach here for all of us, and then some. Woof at ya again.