Dog Park

Husband and I try and take Puppy to the park as much as possible, it relieves a lot of puppy biting and makes for a much better dog afterward. I don't know if you have ever been to a dog park or not, but they are thick with melodrama-no joke, at least mine is. It's not just the dogs that hump, fight and act aggressively; it's the owners who flirt, argue and act insane. It's a strange place. In the four short months that I have been going I have witnessed and been hearsay to: countless dog fights, screaming owners, a pregnant women who got bitten on her stomach by a dog! and bizarre dog/owner relationships. I don't even need to discuss the endless amounts of humping, peeing, pooping and slobber. In many ways it reminds me of a bar- crazy stuff can happen, it's always unpredictable excitement.

Take today for example. In good motherly fashion I decide to sneak in a quick dog park run with Puppy. Since Husband has been busy trying to better himself with loosing weight, he's been too overwhelmed with working out after work to take Puppy to the park. So today I decide to get up early and take our crazy dog to the park before work.

I'll set the scene for you, picture it: it's a dark, cold rainy morning. Grey clouds loom overhead slowly whisping by, the area is surrounded by large purple mountains. The stage is set for what could be battle in the large open arena of the dark park.... (I've been watching a lot of Game of Thrones lately can you tell?) Anyway, even though its rainy I decide what the hell? I'll take Puppy to the park for a quick twenty minute romp, and then drop him back at home before work. It was ambitious, but I'm a good Mother (substitute 'Saint' if you like here). 

Today there didn't seem to be much going on at the old park of drama...or so one would assume upon entering. There were only three other owners there with their dogs running through the muddy puddles.We could see one of the dogs that Puppy likes to play with. If you don't know this already, dogs are like people and tend to play with/like the same dogs within their age range or choosing and play with those dogs each time they see them. Quinlan is the name of this particular friend to Puppy. I don't know any one's actual name, the owners I mean. I only know the dogs names, this is pretty much standard at the park. Anonymity, I love it.

Quinlan's owner is a guy that I privately refer to as the 'English Homeless Guy'. That pretty much sums him up. He has an English accent, and when I first saw him I thought he was literally homeless due to his dirty ragged clothes and shaggy blond beard. I later found out that he is actually the head of some truck delivery company and he's probably pretty loaded, but he looks like a thirty something dirty homeless guy. There's something more then just the accent and the strange dirty clothes that make him kind of interesting: He's great with the dogs in a dog whisperer/Merlin homeless guy kind of way, but unfortunately if you gave him a rope instead of his fancy leash and stood him on the corner he would truly look like the vagrant with a dog that you give money too out your car window at the stop light. He's nice enough, almost attractive, and a man of few words who happens to adore my dog. Therefore he's pretty good in my book.

So Puppy and Quinlan go about their usual routine of chasing each other through the wet sloshy dirt, wrestling each other to the ground, and gnawing on each others faces. The owners usually just stand around. Sometimes I will wander over to a group and chat if I'm in the mood, and sometimes I will just stand there saying nothing and stare, which is socially acceptable at the dog park. Quinlan's owner chats with the other dog owners, but doesn't really chat with me too much. This doesn't really bother me since I'm an introvert and I'd much rather be the voyeur anyway, I'm perfectly pleased to just stand there and stare. Quinlan's owner does however really enjoy Puppy, and knows him by name and gives him lots of pats and attention. I sort of like 'English Homeless Guy'.  He's kind of mysterious in a weird homeless I live under a bridge and know a whole underworld that you don't know mystique kind of way. I find myself wanting to know more about him, without actually wanting to talk to him. There's a few of these at the park-interesting and strange people potentially worth knowing outside these chain link walls.

We stand around today in the muck and the cold and the dogs play and English Homeless Guy kind of hovers nearby while avoiding eye contact, and I stand there looking at my watch anticipating that I need to leave in order to be at work within a reasonable time. Suddenly the sky gets dark and in the distance at the other end of the park I hear a ferocious barking. It's far enough away that I don't flinch, but I notice a large German Shepard playing roughly with a woman. He doesn't appear to be hurting anyone or doing anything weird, so I carry on with my staring into space. That's when I see that English Homeless Guy has also noticed this barking, and his head perks up like an animal in the wild who can tell it may suddenly be prey. He stands motionless and stares intently at the other side of the park at the German Shepard. If he was a dog the hair on the back of his neck would be standing up, that's how extreme he suddenly seems. I watch him and look around like maybe I should start running or something, but I'm not seeing anything that would normally concern me. So I decide to study English Homeless Guy, maybe he will reveal more information and give me a clue as to what I should be doing right now instead of standing here like an idiot. He then mumbles something English to himself and then says:"I need to get a rock, get a rock". He looks around and quickly finds a few round pebbles and shoves them into his pockets. Suddenly we are in 'Braveheart' and I'm wondering if I should mark my face with mud stripes and go hide behind the concrete bench. I look over and the Shepard that he keeps eyeing is miles away playing innocently, not only that, but the Shepard's owner appears to be a mild mannered small Asian woman, not some pit bull breeder with a chip on his shoulder. I look at English Homeless Guy again and say casually, mostly cause I'm just entertained at this point: "you don't like that Shepard?" to which he responds with silence as the dark clouds float by over head, and a light rain starts to fall. He stares intensely across the field at the Shepard and then slowly says to me without looking at me: "if that's Vader, then No." With my recent post you would think I was making this up, but in all seriousness that's what the dogs name was. I figured with a name like that I should be working on my war chant instead of standing in the mud like a sitting duck.

English Homeless Guy quickly collects his dog and his fancy leash all the while never taking his eyes off the joyful Shepard at the other end of the park. He works his way over to the gate to leash Quinlan. Puppy at the that moment of course decides he should start biting Quinlan incessantly. I could tell  English Homeless guy needed to get out of there as soon as possible. Whoever this 'vader' was there was no two ways about it: it was time for them to go! It started raining harder, so I decided to follow suit when English Homeless Guy turns and says to me: "Maybe Puppy would like to go to the small dog park also." He says this like he is giving me some secret hint or tip as to what I should be doing next. I then notice that all the other dogs that were once in the large dog section have scurried out and have collected in the small dog park section safely on the other side of the fence away from Vader. I took this as my cue to leave. I didn't know who or what this Vader was, but I decide I'm not appropriately dressed for a battle at Farik with William Wallace.

Like I said, DRAMA. If you ever get bored go visit your local dog park, I'm sure you never knew what lurked behind that chain link curtain...