Dog Park Visit

I took my dogs to a local dog park today and boy was I in for a surprise. The full parking lot should have been a hint but I thought a local construction company was using it for overflow parking. No. All the cars belonged to people visiting the park.

There were over a hundred dogs in the park which is 12 acres of grass and dirt divided in to four main areas. There is a small area for small dogs, three large areas for big dogs and a large open area for everyone.

All the dog runs, and the open area, come with trees and picnic benches. There are several water areas and even two plastic pools for frolicking. Even a nice mud puddle that two labs were taking advantage of.

Most of the dogs were accompanied by a human or two, so I walked around talking to people while my dogs frolicked and did the social dog thing. We joined clumps of human huddled under trees and around tables.

There was one group of old timers hanging around. They all knew each other and each other’s dogs, and told me that they had been meeting up at the dog park for years. It provided a good social outlet for otherwise non social individuals. And of course their dogs loved it.

There was also one middle aged man who walked from group to group carrying a long handled tool with a small shovel on the end. He walked around behind his pack of seven large dogs picking up poop. Everyone knew him and greeted him by name when he stopped for a moment or two to talk. He never stayed long with one group, just popped in, greeted their dogs and moved on. I watched him patrol the park three times. A self appointed guardian. Him being there made me feel safer.

A good day.