When everything feels hard, go to the beach.

Well guys, we’ve officially had our first beach day of the year; and I can’t believe its happening 5 weeks in, but here we are. I’ve been travelling so much for work (every weekend) with also jobs happening during the week, which has been great! But its always hard being away from Boonie. Luckily, my good friend Makayla has been watching him a fair bit while we’ve been at work AND Boonie’s been getting to escape to the Keys every weekend with his dad (lucky him).

All that to say – I not only needed a single day off but a good day at the beach. The weather has been bipolar here in Fort Lauderdale as we’ve been having colder temps since the end of last year, but as of the last week, things seem to be back up in the 80’s.

I genuinely keep forgetting how VITAL it is to take a day to myself and only do one task. My one task of the day was to take Boonie to the beach, well, and go grab a coffee. So after our morning walk around the neighbourhood, we did just that.

Quick side note – this guy just continues to make me feel like a million bucks and always puts a smile on my face.

I can’t just sit and mope all day because, well he’s gotta go outside and that gets me outside. Once i’m there, I feel the sun on my face and my blood starts pumping a bit, and now i’m inspired to take a little adventure to the beach.

I genuinely think its all about baby steps and just making one decision. One thing i’ve implemented in this new year is whenever I get overwhelmed, I stop, put everything down, rest, and then focus on one thing that’s going to better me and my dog.

So far, it’s done us both a hell of a lot of good <3

While we were on our way to the coffee spot, I rolled the window down for Boonie to pop his head out. We have a leash that’s clipped to the headrest that’s attached to his harness to ensure he doesn’t go tumbling out, because I like to have the window all the way down.

I had a good song on: Let Go by Frou Frou. Tell me you don’t remember that song! It came on! On my Spotify Daylist! And man if that wasn’t meant for me in that moment. But while this song was playing, I kept glancing over at Boonie and seeing his big smile while he was eating the air, ears flapping in the wind, just enjoying his head being out of the window. Imagine that. A dog being lost in happiness and grateful for a window down and air hitting his face. I could cry. It was such a small moment, but one that happens every time we get in the car, and its in turn, another reminder for myself on how to be grateful for small moments. Even if they happen every day.

After our coffee run and a pup cup, we headed to Hollywood Beach Dog Park. We’ve come here multiple times as, hello, we live in Florida near the beach. Boonie’s recall is something we are continuously working on, but to be honest, could be worked on a hell of a lot harder. I still have him on a leash when we’re here because with all the other dogs, he’ll just take off and i’ll be chasing him around.

All that to say, its got me thinking about other areas we can take Boonie here where I can still have him be able to play in water, but in a more controlled environment that might allow for some recall training at the same time. More on that later.

We hung out here for about an hour and a half before heading home, but I could tell that we both needed it. I got some sun, Boonie got to swim, and my mood was instantly lifted. My favorite part of all of this was us sprinting up and down the waters edge. Boonie loves to try and grab the top part of his leash if we start running. It’s a game to him. And a game he always loses at. But it makes me laugh like a little kid and I’m sure I looked like a maniac, sprinting back and forth up and down the beach, then popping into the water for a dunk, back out again for another chase. Rinse. Repeat.

This was a good hour for us.

I seem to have gone into another funk lately and I can’t help but feel a lot of it has to do with our new president, the uncertainties of quite literally everything, the lack of time i’m currently spending with my partner, and flying every single weekend when there’s all these issues happening with the FAA. My nervous system has been a wreck. I have mountains of footage I need to sift through and edits I need to already have done, but seeing as I haven’t had a day off in what feels like forever, and coming off of a horrible bout of food poisoning, I just gave the middle finger to everything and everyone so we could go out and enjoy the beach for a hot minute.

Sure glad we got out there. Tomorrow’s a new day and i’m definitely going to bring a new attitude.

xoxo

Cass & Boonie