Dog Park Drama

On Saturday, we attempted to take Daisy and Meatie for a walk around the park. You know, so we could also get exercise. Unfortunately though, with all the stopping and starting and tripping and squirrel chasing - we got more annoyed than exercised.

So we decided to leave after doing just one mile - and hit the dog park on our way home.

We were suprised by how well Meatie did. Daisy is Miss Social and likes to check out everyone and run around a lot and get things going. She's super nosey and always wants to know what's going on when there is something going on. She's not shy.

Meatie, on the other hand, is a baby baby mama's boy. He whines a little and he hides a lot. He sticks close. And if he does get brave enough to run off; he always looks back to make sure we are we he left us. He had also developed a bit of a limp in his front legs; which we blame on growing pains. However, on Saturday - his limp was gone and he was being very social. It probably helps that he's as big as Daisy now (55 pounds!) (and still growing! ack!)

So Daisy was boxing and playing and running with another dog, Bo. And then another dog joined in, and then Meatie did too - and they ran and they jumped and they played.

Until Meatie got rolled and stepped on - and he FREAKED THE F OUT! He was YELPING so loudly I thought he'd like lost a limb or something. And the other dogs ran off like, "OMG please make that noise stop!" and the other owners all stopped and stared. We ran over to him; expecting to see a dislocated shoulder or something - (he was holding his foot up, so I should have known better) - but he seemed fine. I was petting his face (he was still yelping for like 30 more seconds!) and Mark was poking and prodding to see if he had a tender spot.

But, fortunately he was mostly just startled.

He was up, not limping, and ready to play again within minutes.

I'm very thankful not only that the experience didn't break his spirit - but also that it didn't break the bank by requiring a vet visit. whew!

ThursDaisy. Sort of.

Daisy is having so much fun going to the dog park with us. And I'm getting a little more confident in my ability to take her by myself. It's funny because at home, she's bad a lot. Well, not a lot. Just when she's not sleeping. In fact, she was exhausted last week after having gone to the dog park 3 days in a row and having daycare....and so I felt comfortable leaving her in a room alone (she was sound asleep!) But it didn't take two minutes of me being out of sight for her to eat my favorite pair of sunglasses. Sigh.

BUT, at the dog park, she's such a sweetie. We really did luck out in getting a "good dog." Most of the time she's running with another dog or she's standing by herself trying to figure out which group of dogs to play with. Sometimes she's splashing in the little pools or licking the face of a tiny child. I don't have to worry about her much.

Her only problem. Well, two problems. Is 1) it's sometimes hard to get her to leave and 2) She's hella nosey. Dogs are growling? She's going over to see what's going on. Everyone's looking at something? OMG, she has to know what it is. The only reason why this is an issue is she gets a little too close to aggression sometimes, and I don't want her to get hurt or to appear to have been involved.

But she's trying new things and getting more confident in meeting other dogs. She even played with a frisbee the other day. Two dogs were playing tug o war with it - and she came up and bit it right in the middle so it was a three-way tug o war, which was pretty darn cute.

Yesterday she played with her friend, Malakai, and a big black lab. They had a lot of fun rough housing and jumping into the pools. We were there for over an hour, and thankfully I brought a cookie to get her to come to me to leave....especially since she kept putting herself in the middle of these three dogs that were playing pretty rough. (Malakai was right there with her though, so all four of us left).

So, due to the fact that Daisy was not pretty yesterday, attributed mostly to the slobber of two black dogs and a shove into the dirt to seal the deal, how about a substitute?

Daisy's brother Jack Jack, pictured with a daisy?

A Wedding, a Dog Park, and Bodily Fluids

I'm sure you can tell by the title of this one that I had what might be called an interesting weekend. Saturday was the wedding. Now, would your votes for what to wear to the wedding have changed had you known about the unusual theme? "What kind of theme could be that unusual, Aimee?" you might ask. If I had told you that it was a Mountain Dew theme, would you have voted differently? And yes, I'm serious.

The wedding part of it was actually really nice. The bride laughed, the groom cried...and well frankly, anytime you vow to have a place in your home set aside just for flowers that you will bring home to each other, well, it's a-okay with me.

We didn't stay long (long enough to eat, but not long enough for cake). And I decided on dress 1 and shoes 2. And I felt pretty. So Thanks!
Please excuse the copious amounts of sunlight that are making me squinty, and the angle at which Mark chose to shoot this particular photo.

Today, I went shopping with my friend J. She and I went to the mall (hi! we're 13!) and shopped and ate lunch. We ended up getting some great deals. I got two shirts from Ann Taylor Loft for $17 TOTAL. I also got a top and a necklace for $30 at New York and Co. and some candle stuff, including a cupcake shaped candle holder with candle at Illuminations. I got the cupcake candle holder with candle, two sets of 3 egg cups (polka dots!) and two sets of 6 tealights for $5.32! YEAH!!

THEN, we decided to take the dogs to the dog park. We went home and got our respective pooches and I met her at the park. The park has a gated dog park and then another gate that goes off to a lake area so the dogs can swim (Chance is laughing at that!) There was an obnoxious german shepard and a very sweet rottweiler and another cute little dog that LOVES to be chased.

All was well. Socks got to swim. Chance waded and then freaked out when the water got deeper. They even shared a drink at the watering hole.


We were just commenting on how they get along when it's not Socks visiting Chance on his territory. Then J reached down to pet Chance and Socks got jealous and got in between them. From there, they both got fussy and growly and teeth-showy and then jumpy and slappy. And there was blood. And girls yelling CHANCE! SOCKS! NO! BAD! And the blood got on my foot. And then we tried to find out who was bleeding and why? No one was crying. Or appeared to be in pain. Poor Socks had a scratch on his nose (we think) and it was bleeding quite a bit. But J put some cold water on it and it looked okay. After that, we decided this might be better.


So, in 5 visits to the dog park we have had, 1 peeing incident, one chihuahua mauling, forty frillion bags of poop, and now, blood. Maybe I should rethink this whole thing.

Dog Park Drama

I'm not sure I can convey the dog park stories appropriately without audio. Apparently, my "Chance voice" is very descriptive. But I'm sure you can imagine it, right?

On Thursday, Chance and I met Mark at his work before softball. But, Mark didn't have his softball gear with him. So he had to go back to the house. Chance and I decided to go ahead and go to the dog park without him. We got there and things were lovely. Chance did the usual, "Hi! People!" routine, and barely paid attention to the dogs. He also found a sucker in the form of a nine-year-old girl who didn't mind that he was slobbery, and so she kept petting him.

We had been there for about 20 to 30 minutes. I was talking with some of the other "moms" and "dads" (one doggie had two daddies). And I was laughing in my head because the doggie of the two daddies was always getting in trouble. He didn't seem to be doing anything wrong, but one of the daddies would yell, "Auto! no!" and auto would stop doing, well, nothing. It was kind of humorous. (he was a high strung dog).

And then all hell broke loose.

A woman and her son (who I had talked to before on another trip to the dog park) were coming in the gate with their little chihuahua mix (bigger than a chihuahua, but still small....maybe with a small rat terrier mixed in). Two big dogs came barreling through the gate and started attacking the little dog. We heard the yelps and we all turned around and I saw the little dog being flung around like it was a toy. The owner of the two dogs came in and tried to stop them, and another woman grabbed the dog that was holding the chihuahua and pulled its jaws apart to get the little dog out. The little dog ended up biting the woman on the face in all the chaos.

The owner had fallen to the ground and was sobbing and screaming. Her son had kicked off his sandals and ran as fast as he could away from the gates and over to the activity area, where he sobbed. And as things settled down (sort of), the other dogs (including Chance) came over to see what all the fuss was about.

I dragged Chance away from the gate and he continued to do his Chance thing (though, he stayed a little closer to me) and I went over to the little boy (he's about 8 or 9 I'd say). His mom and the lady that had grabbed the little dog were outside the park on a picnic table making sure the dog was okay. And they tried reassuring him that it was okay to come over there, but he wasn't budging. I went and talked to him and walked him out of the park (keeping the dogs away from him).

After that, the adrenaline (in the humans and the dogs) was a little high. And almost everyone left (except the guy with the attack dogs!) We were all talking in the parking lot and I let Auto have a drink of Chance's water. (friends!) The little dog will be okay. She wasn't hurt, she was just startled.