Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Watching Dogs Dancing

I got nothing.  Really.  I am one dead piece of meat, just waiting to go to bed for the night.  I had a physical today to fill out my form for Scout camp.  The doctor said I'm in good health.  If I'm in such good health, why am I so damn tired??????

Okay, you don't want to hear about tired.  You're tired of tired.  Good.  I am too.

Today, I walked Teddy at Marymoor park.  Now, everybody who knows anything about dogs around the Seattle area knows that Marymoor is the best off leash dog park within a hundred mile radius.  There's water to play in along the slough.  There are open fields with tall grass.  There are tall trees for some shady walking.  The trails are well maintained.  I clocked 2.04 miles on RunKeeper today.  It was easy.  I watched the great blue herons feeding their baby, a big baby.  I talked to people and watched Teddy play.

The thing to know about going to Marymoor is that you should never go there on a sunny weekend.  It's just too full of dogs that haven't seen another dog in the past ten months.  The best days at Marymoor are gray days like today, especially during the week.  The people I see during the week are the regulars, the ones who walk their dogs every day regardless of the weather.  These dogs get along together a whole lot better than the ones who haven't seen another dog since last summer. 

Teddy made lots of friends, a sweet teenage labradoodle with a bad case of hair-fuck, an Aussie/Border Collie mix that acted too cool for school like Teddy, a bossy terrier mix that was smaller than a chihuahua, and a Golden Retriever who was relieved that Teddy had no interest in his ball.  Teddy doesn't particularly like water or tennis balls.  He managed to smear himself with what I could only imagine was dog shit.  I figured if he didn't wash it off by the time we left, I'd have to take him over to the dog wash.  It's only $13, but the guy always comes around to tell me I'm not doing it right when I'd rather be left alone.  I just couldn't picture myself getting this poopy dog into the car to let him wipe his dirty self all over my car seats.  He managed to dip his nose into the water and dunk down a few times and without too much ado, it washed out.  I don't think Teddy liked being poopy.  He doesn't mind being muddy, but the mud holes have mostly dried up. 

Teddy is a wash and wear kind of dog.  I like that about him.  He can dunk down into the mud and be almost completely brown, but by the time we walk back to the car, most of it has fallen off him.  Good thing.  A lot of it falls off in the car too, but I try to keep a blanket across the back seat to shield them, for the most part, so the boys have a decent place to sit.

Today, people wanted to talk.  Teddy took an older guy out at the knees by sneaking up behind him.  I had even warned his wife that he was known for that kind of thing.  Another woman and I watched as Teddy body-slammed a bigger dog who had the advantage over him.  He'd been headed toward him at full speed when, at the last moment, he did a classic home-base slide and rolled this dog's legs out from under him.  It couldn't have been a better move if they'd choreographed it.  I ended up asking a guy who'd always had Aussies about Teddy's antisocial sleeping habits and he said that's totally typical.  I had a good time.  Thankfully, it wasn't too hot out to run my errands and leave Teddy in the car for a bit.  It was a good and productive day. 

I have to tell you that I spent a lot of time just standing at the park, talking to people, and laughing at the way our dogs were playing.  That's a great way to break up the monotony of running errands.

Thank you for listening, jb

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