A few days back I had to put Nadi in a position that she doesn't much care for. She was at the groomers. While she was there for a few hours I was at home without her and it occurred to me like it always does when I do this that in a few years' time every hour of every day of my life is going to be like this.
The tragedy of dog ownership is that one day, unless you are very unfortunate, you are going to have to let them go to the afterlife.
Nadi is still in really good health according to the vets but years just fly by in my life these days and I am aware of the fact that her health will certainly start to diminish in the next 2-5 years. That seems like a long time but I just blinked and 5 years had gone by with me living in Vietnam. It goes faster than you think!
So I made the decision the other day that I am going to be bringing her down to the beach on a regular basis even though it means a lengthy clean up process once we return home. I don't want to wait until her eyesight is bad and her legs don't work so well anymore, to take her to the place that makes her so happy.
Thankfully, she is mostly really well behaved so I don't have to worry about her getting into the stuff of other people that are down there and I found a group of coconut trees that the majority of the tourists don't go to where we can be on our own. I bring a book with me and some water, and we just chill down there for the most part. If she is feeling springy, I will go down to the water and then the puppy in her comes out as she runs around and plays and gets into the water a big and basically just covers herself in sand.
Other places we can go have these lounge chairs that you can rent for like $2 and I am ok with that as well although there does tend to be a lot more people here and while she kind of likes the attention, Nadi is more of a "one human doggy."
I think she really enjoys it down here and when we go she gets tired pretty fast and I think she gets overheated as well. I am overheated when we go there and I don't have a fur coat on that I can't take off. So when we do go home she normally will sploot on the cool tile floor for a long period of time and just chill.
The bath process takes probably about 30 minutes and it is a pain because since I am western sized and everything in Vietnam is meant for someone a foot shorter than I am, I have to really work my back to get her clean. She hates it of course, but I try to make it as comfortable as possible. It's a shame that she doesn't like to get in a tub or bucket of water, because that would seriously make the entire process so much easier.
I think the next time we go down there, right before we leave, I may actually dip her in the ocean (not her face) just to loosen up a bunch of the sand. I don't really have a real strategy here. I just know that there are some things in life that bring this little fluff ball a great amount of joy and it brings me joy to see her so happy.
I think we still have a few years left together, and a lot can happen in that time... but I'm just glad I sobered up my life and started doing things like this before it is too late.
Right now she is sitting in the chair next to mine and this is where she wants to be. The air con is on a cool 23 degrees and she has the best sofa cushion in the house as a pillow.