BEACH DOGS AND CATS

We've visited beautiful beaches all over the world and nearly always there is a stray dog or two and a lot of stray cats milling about.  Or in some cases, dogs and cats that actually have owners but just choose to hang out on the beach.

One of our favorites was Kuru, the friendly dog owned by the proprietors at the Little Polynesian resort in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands of the South Pacific.

Kuru

Kuru (the name means breadfruit in Polynesian) was very friendly.  She would sit as close as she could get to us in our beach chairs and beg us to throw a stick for her.  Just as the island people are very friendly here, all dogs seemed to get along well, too.

Kuru (right) Playing Tug Of War With An Old Palm Frond And A Beach Buddy

The Little Poly also had a feline resident named Kara.  She was so sweet she would sneak into our room and lounge around on our bed until we heard the maid coming and didn't want to get caught with her in the room!  Kara, by the way, is Polynesian for "color."

Kara

We kept in touch with Little Poly owner Dorice Reed and she told us, sadly, that Kara died shortly after our visit.  Then Kuru went to his reward.  And a few months ago we got word that Dorice had passed away in nearby New Zealand.

Another favorite K-9 beach bum was a delightful Heinz 57 on Fiji who hung out at the Mana Island Resort.  My daughter dubbed her "Freckles" because she was white with dark spots.  We let her in the room and gave her scraps.  Sadly I think resort visitors were probably the only source for food for the poor girl.

In Hydra, a Greek island not far from Athens in the Mediterranean, a sleepy little kitty varied his time between dozing off in front of a building to hanging out on the rocks right next to the sea.

Kitty's Inland Hangout

The Other Hangout Across The Street

While visiting Guam in Micronesia, there was a very friendly stray beach dog just outside our beautiful Hyatt Regency Guam Hotel on Tumon Bay.  It was so hot on that beach I felt sorry for the poor guy.

The Guam Beach Dog Would Dig In The Sand To Reveal A Cool Spot Under The Surface

There are a ton of cats in Aruba and during one of our 8 visits there, the saddest thing happened.  We were flying back home early the next morning so my wife and I turned in early while the kids spent one last evening on the beach.  Around 10:30 my daughter returned to the room with the tiniest newborn puppy I've ever seen.  It was a little black guy, probably weighing no more than three or four ounces.  My daughter explained that it had been left far away from the main den of puppies under a little pier.  I told her to take the puppy back and put it in the nest and she took off.

Ten minutes later she returned to say that the mother had grabbed the little guy and dropped him a long way from the main nest.  I told her to try it one more time and then return to the room to get some sleep.

The following morning before we left for the airport our daughter checked to see if the little puppy was in the nest.  He wasn't.  It's survival of the fittest and the mother dog must have known that the little runt was too weak to pull through.  Still, if I had a week left on the island I would have taken the little guy to a vet to see if there was any hope.  Sad story but nature knows best.

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