Dog Day at North Shore

For some strange reason I thought it would be fun to take three dogs to the "Day in the Bark" or whatever event they had at North Shore park this last Saturday. I grabbed a few leashes, Chunky, his buddy Kona, and his cousin(?) Miller. Despite the fact that it was only two miles away and I left at eleven thirty, somehow I didn't get there until two. Sadly, the event ended at two. Not to be deterred, I decided to let the dogs play with each other and chase the ducks. Why is Miller on a leash while Kona and Chunky run freely? The same reason he thinks his name is, "NO-BAD-DOG!" You can read Tiffany's explanation here. We walked around for a little while, all three dogs on the leash. As much fun as that was trying to play "Cats Cradle" with live animals, enough was enough. Two of the dogs rarely, if ever, wear leashes because they will stay right by your side. I decided that those two could run free, and they didn't disappoint. They wouldn't chase the ducks unless I said, "Go get 'em!" They would come right back when I called, they would "sit" and "shake" for strangers admiring how cute theywere. Kona and Chunky were so well behaved that people came up to me to tell me, "Wow, are those two dogs yours? They're so good!" On the other hand, my shoulder was getting ripped out of its socket because Miller wanted so badly to run around and swim too. He did have one of those leashes that extends fifteen or so feet, but it wasn't helping. I'd spent some time with Miller in the morning letting him run around without a leash, so feeling bad and a little trusting, I wisely thought that maybe if I let him off his leash he'd run right to the ducks and into the pond, and not go very far. Nope. As soon as he got unclipped and realized his new found freedom he took off. He ran off around the pond so fast I lost sight of him in about two seconds.

I had to grab Kona, Chunky, my purse, the empty leashes and go after him. Kona was soaking wet, and he and Chunky decided to run around the pavilion where the YMCA's little basketball team was having the end of the year party. Thank heavens I wasn't wearing make up, had on an awesome jogging outfit with mismatched socks and was covered in dog slobber because as it turns out, I knew half the basketball team. Awesome. Then, because I was chit chatting and not looking for Miller, Kona decided to shake off his excess water on the party goers, while Chunky scrounged around looking for leftover cookies under all their chairs and make the kids squeal with laughter. After saying hello and then a quick good bye (and trying to act like the two dogs following me weren't mine), I turned to go and look for Miller just as a young girl came over screaming at the top of her lungs, "Who's dog is this!?! WHO IS MISSING THEIR DOG!??" Ah, yes. That would be my dog.. thankfully she found Miller, and announced it to the entire group of people trying to listen to the coach hand out trophies to their kids. Best day I've had in a while-I've not had to apologize to that many people in at least two weeks.Chunky did enjoy himself playing in the sand. He would dig a little, and then try to figure out where all that flying sand was coming from. When he couldn't see who was throwing the sand, he went back to digging. Only to discover MORE flying sand!!! Puppies are never ending fun.Kona loved swimming, he was in the water playing for almost two hours. I imagine he was a fur covered raisin by the time we ran home. Wait, is that a duck swimming in the background?? ... No! It's a bird! ... It's a plane??? It's.... some one's kid?