* * *COUNTDOWN: 28 DAYS TO LA/XC-5 * * * Poor Kemba’s been coping with adversity this whole summer. All my dog wants out of life is to fetch the purple squeaky rubber ball that I chuck into the ocean for him.  But when he swims for it, retrieves it, and drops it at my feet, beautfully, like a good…

Last summer, Kemba’s first birthday celebration on #hermanbeach in Amagansett was a relatively low-key affair.  Kept under wraps until the afternoon of the party, and even then only signaled by a small copy-paper sign taped to the Beagle Man’s surfboard*, there were just seven humans and two dogs…

Weekend before last, on Friday afternoon, this monstrous, huge, scary ball appeared out of nowhere on the beach, in front of the White Sands Motel.  I made sure to keep as much ground between me and it as possible.  Beagle Man didn’t seem upset by the thing; he was focused on the lights being stru…

    Photos by beach buddy Scott Rudin

On Thursday, July 7, my good friend Nena (some would say my “girlfriend”) woke up having trouble breathing, so Luz and her niece rushed her to the vet.  There was a mass in her lung, it turns out, and her heart was enlarged.  Before they could even get her to a specialist, she collapsed and died.  …

Got back from a quicky late-night bite at the Grey Goose.  I’d been gone for maybe 45 minutes.  Kemba greeted me, of course, at the playroom door, all in a lather.  God forbid I’d get back from even the shortest trip without dropping everything to play with him. “Come on, Handsome, let’s go out in…

The outlook wasn’t sunny over Winslow Park that day; But the parking lot was all but full, and Kemba still had to play. And then when Patricia kicked the ball and Kemba went to get it, Bullet snatched it clean from out his jaws; you’ve got to give him credit. So my dog turned to Jamie, appealing f…

Was talking last Friday to one of my Hartford writing students — a hardcore dog lover who also happens to be a big-time fan of this blog.  She knows pretty much all there is to know about the LA/XC series, my annual cross-country road trips from Westport to Los Angeles to bring Ricky (originally)…

Kemba and Ruckus spent the long Memorial Day weekend together at the beach in Montauk.  The Tuesday after, our daughter-in-law Kelly told us, Ruckus refused to go to Biscuits & Bath, the doggy daycare center which was, heretofore, his favorite place on the planet.  For the rest of the week, Gr…

Should Beagle Man be asking Steve the Breeder for his money back?  I know, I know, this sounds pretty petty, especially coming from me, the dog Kemba replaced.  But seriously — isn’t he supposed to be a Duck Tolling Retriever?  Yeah, sure, the retrieving part, he’s awesome at that:  If B-Man throw…