The Dog Park

So, last night, before I went to pick up Donna at work, Pickles and I went to the dog park, AKA the Bark Park.  (For those of you that don't know, the Bark Park is behind Chimborazo Park, in the lower part of the park.  It's an excellent use of that area which has been closed for many years before the park was built.)  Pickles had a great time eating grass, trying to eat rocks and generally smelling every spot in the park.  We could only stay a few minutes because we had to pick up Donna but Pickles had a great time and went right to sleep as soon as we got home which is a shame because she, basically, took a nap before she went to bed for the night...which was not good.

Later that evening, Donna had some Italian Wedding Soup on the arm of the sofa.  Please notice I said "had" because Pickles saw something new, jumped up and knocked it all over Donna, the laptop and the sofa.  I don't know how many of you know what's in that soup but I do and it's none too easy to clean up.  And yeah, that was after her nap.  Then it was time for bed and you can only imagine how that went.  She got her peanut butter (along with the toy Ben and Marshall gave her) and when she was finished, she squeaked it until she got bored...which was about 20 minutes.  Thanks Ben and Marshall!

This morning, we got up and I took the kids to school but as we were leaving, the power went out.  Okay, I'm not home and how long would it be out?  On a clear Monday morning?  Well, about two hours!  I saw the Virginia Power guys and they didn't know what was wrong or where the problem was but in their defense, it was on within 20 minutes so not too bad.  After I got back home and some play time, we both took a quick nap (I'm on evening shift this week) then went to the Bark Park again.

This time, I took a ball for her to chase but that lasted for about two minutes until she found rocks to chew and grass to eat.  I realize she has to have another way to use those senses to compensate for the deafness but why not just look at things?  She sniffed about, ran around and then chased me and the ball for about an hour.  As we were leaving, a couple of dogs in the big dog area saw her and ran up to the fence and I'm glad she's deaf because she was looking the other way but when she saw them, she tried to jump into my pocket!  They were behind the fence and about 30 feet away but that didn't seem to matter.  I made her stop and look at the other dogs because she's never seen one bigger than her since she's lived with me (only Nola who is much smaller).  Pickles had her hair up on her back and growled a bit but then shot for the stairs and pulled me up them to the car.  We stopped by Captain Buzzy's, looking for Mary Ann, but she wasn't there (at least her car wasn't there) then went home. 

Pickles then took a well-deserved nap.  Being a puppy is tiring!