Vol 1, #2 Sunday in May and photos

Hello Dog Lovers,

Greetings and salutations. Today a photo-journalist, Marina, was at dog park. She got lots of great shots of all the dogs present. We decided that a day of dog and human photos done by a professional photographer, Marina Makapoulus, in early June at dog park would be great. All proceeds would go to dog park funds for renewal. What do you think? Stay tuned and more details will follow.

Today, Blanche the American Bull Dog pup ( 7 months and quite a big girl) was star of the day. She and Angus were into it over the Red Evil Kong. Angus, who is rather a dog hog regarding toys, had possession of the kong. Blanche, smartly, bit the feet of the toy sticking out of Angus's mouth. No such luck for Blanche for the mighty Angus chocalate lab prevailed. Such conflicts arise amid dogs and people.

I heard tell that two of the dp factions bubbled to the surface this week. The cheerleaders v.
Tom Boys went into battle. Each side got in one or two swipes at the other. At the end of the day the score was cheerleaders= 0, tom boys= 0. All things being equal, dog park is simply put a microcosm of life, society, pack behavior and histories.

I am always amazed to hear peoples' stories as sitting on the dog park bench is somewhat like urban Forrest Gump. The stories and lives become real. I think there is something about sitting in "nature" or as close to it as the city will allow, or perhaps the dog presence, makes people loosen their tongues. Everyone has his or her story. One person lost a big amount of weight. Some people had never seen this person prior to weight loss. Time marches on. I recall a dentist named Allen who used to come to dog park with his 12 year old golden named
"Walker". Haven't seen them in a year or two. So, I suppose that Walker went home for good.

I haven't recently seen "Cadence". He is a 180 pound Argentine Mastiff, or dogo as they are called. He is totally white and completely huge. Except, he thinks he is a lap dog. He is very sweet and wants to climb up on your lap. His name Cadence came from the fact that his, now newly married human, had been a Marine. So he wanted his dog to walk to a different drummer...a Marine drummer. Hope to see you all soon. His human had been in Iraq and came back to find $800 of parking tickets for a city sticker he couldn't have purchased while away. Then the city would not let him out of the fees. What a bunch of champs, huh?

I met a Brazilian lady at Hamlin Park who had two dogs, both from South America. One a golden and the other, a flat-coated retriever. Since there are only a few flat-coat breeders in the US, she wanted one from a different genetic pool. Her family had immigrated to Brazil after WWII after having survived the Holocaust. I think she was making a movie or writing a book about her family's experiences.

Chimmy, aka, Chimichanga (sp?) is one or the mid-day regulars. Chimmy, and Iberian beauty, is great friends with Bruzer, the pugle who should be ten feet tall. Kristen is Bruzer's human. John of dog park is the human of Chimmy. Chimmy is queen of the tree stump which she jumps up on and catches tennis balls with great accuracy.

If you have not read your pup's name yet, not to worry. For every dog shall have his day.

Still looking for a camera person to document these wonderful creatures who bring us so much love and pleasure. Enough for now.

That's all she wrote. Roe