My wife tells me not to be mean, so I won’t type what I said upon reading this. (Hint: Never had a “pet” animal. Never will. Never quite understood people who do - but I digress).
AHEM! So, here is my (obviously) generic comment that has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the mangy cur (er dog) in this case:
A 67-year old man’s got to know his limitations.
There. Just a common sense comment. Non-cur/dog judgmental.
A 67-year old man has no business trying to climb down a sand cliff to rescue ANYTHING.
Been on those sand cliffs. Notoriously slippery and unstable. Bad idea.
Dogs are the only animal they specifically co-evolved with humans. Even so our eyes could see each others. Dogs and humans worked together to beat the neanderthals. Without them, who knows what would have happened.