arif's 1st beach trip

after several discarded plans over the past few weekends to bring our 5-month-old puppy arif to the beach, we finally succeeded on saturday.

we nearly didn't make it again as we'd all gone to bed late the previous night and woke up only at 10am. :(

but the sky was blue and clear, and the sun was shining brightly - which prompted the hub to suggest we head for the beach with arif. the only snag was that xian's weekly swimming class starts at 5pm so we only had a few hours to rush to the beach and back in time for lunch and her class.

so after a late breakfast of roti prata at our regular serangoon gardens eatery and running a series of errands, we hurriedly drove back to get changed into our swimsuits.

arif must have sensed our excitement as he was whining and running around in his space. hub then attached the leash to his collar and arif got into the back of our zafira. actually, that's another reason why we got the MPV! we can fold down the extra seats and convert that boot space into a comfy, spacious sitting area for prince arif!

according to the owners of the australian pet farm where he was born, arif enjoyed car rides very often - about once a week. the hub has also taken arif to the vet twice in the MPV so arif automatically knows his own "seat".

we decided to go to pasir park because it was the closet to our home we didn't have much time to drive out to the other beaches. the hub had initially wanted to visit tanjong beach in sentosa but the travelling time and distance were unfavourable, keeping in mind that xian's swimming lessons start at 5pm and it was almost 1pm when we set off.

we had decided to have a late lunch since we had a heavy breakfast, but i didn't want the kids to eat too late either as that would upset their timing. heh, we ended up eating at 3pm!

once we reached our destination, the girls clambered out quickly. i morphed into a trigger-happy mumsy (as usual) and snapped numerous pictures of arif, the girls and hub. then the hub, xian and arif ran to the beach while i followed behind with wen who was scampering about on her short(er) little legs and trying her level best to catch up with them!

actually i was rather surprised to find the park/beach rather quiet and not very crowded. i suppose it was still too early in the day for families to walk their dogs in the park. and definitely inappropriate for a BBQ meal. :)

xian's goal was to build a sandcastle, so she started digging and moulding the sand into the shape of a hill. meanwhile, arif was merrily sniffing about the grass patch, obviously elated to be out running in the open space.

of course, we still kept him on a leash as required by law. plus, he's a relatively big dog (although not yet fully-grown) and may scare people off.

dogs are natural swimmers and just last weekend, while hub was cleaning his 2 metre-deep koi pond, arif dashed through the gates, jumped in and was happily swimming with the fishes until hub helped him back up the platform. we assumed that arif would have fun at the beach.

now, pasir ris park doesn't have a fantastically clean beach and the muddy water was even less inviting, but that didn't stop arif from bounding enthusiastically into the sea...

SPLASH!

SPLASH!!

SPLASH!!!

SPLASH!!!!

SPLASH!!!!!

ooooops.

bad mistake.

poor arif didn't realise how deep the waters were until he waded off too far from shore!

arif panicked and, according to the hub, drank some sea water! thankfully the leash was still on and the hub managed to pull him back safely to the beach.

after the adventurous stunt, our little daredevil was very much subdued. a badly-shaken arif refused to set one paw into the shallow waters.

the hub patted arif and spoke in a reassuring tone to calm him down. after 10 minutes, my ever-patient hub managed to gently coax and guide him back to the edge of the beach to help him overcome his shock/fear. arif gradually became less fearful and allowed the hub to lead him back into the sea although he would quickly turn back to dry land after paddling out 3m from shore.

in the meantime, my two girls were enjoying themselves - oblivious to the drama that was unfolding nearby.

wen's a brave little one and she constantly insisted on wading out deeper and deeper until i had to carry her back! xian was contented with playing with sand and occasionally left her sand pit to root, cheer and provide moral support to arif in the water.

after a while, the 2 princesses clambered back onto the beach and started to build sandhills. then arif spotted them and decided to join them.

of course he didn't really want to 'pile up' the sand. arif climbed onto of the girls' sandhill and proceeded to flatten it. then his instincts commanded him to dig and so a new competition began!

it was heartening to see that arif was back to his playful mood and he became fully absorbed with his new sand-digging game. the hub laughed and commented that arif behaved as if he's digging a bone buried deep underground.

we spent a total of 45 minutes altogether at pasir ris park. i think we all had a fairly good time although arif had a rather nasty shock initially. despite the little hiccup, we'll continue to bring him to the beach. and hopefully, we'll have more time to plan for our next trip, preferably to tanjong beach where there'll be other dogs to keep him company.