Cleo loves the dog park. Sadly, where I live there are no parks that are anywhere nearby. I need to drive to Littleton (45 minutes in a direction I never go for any other reason) or 15-45 minutes north towards the Boulder area. Since it is about the same amount of driving for Cleo to go slobber on other dogs, I have decided to 'catch em all' and visit all of the dog parks. So far I haven't found a favorite, but I have found several I will never go to again. Winter and Spring is a pretty terrible time to be trying out dog parks. All of the grass is gone, and it is cold, wet and muddy. Still, I treat her to the park especially on days when I know I will be spending a lot of time away from her or busy around the apartment.
I went to the Louisville dog park. Now getting there was a story in itself, because on google places on my phone it brought me downtown Louisville and told me the park was there. After circling around the tiny downtown of Louisville that to me seemed like a Durango or Silverton sized town but full of angry city people driving Audis, I gave up and started home. Of course as I left town I saw the dog park on the right. I could tell just at a glance that it was absolutely a bog of dog poo and mud but Cleo had also spotted it and I couldn't let her down.
I parked and we wandered in to the park. There were only about five or six other dogs there, and Cleo bounded over to where most of the dogs and their owners were standing. I tried not to act nervous, as the last time we went to a park I ended up leaving because Cleo was picking on another dog. She seemed to do fine, running about and meeting all of the people. Of course, the second I let Cleo off the leash ever she poops. In the same situation on the same day I could take her on a walk and it takes fifteen to thirty minutes for a poo, off the leash it is the first thing she does. I had a bag, was prepared and now she could go about running through the mud and going from a white dog to a crumbly brown one.
After several minutes of standing huddled near the other owners, I looked across the dog park and saw her pooping again. I sighed and walked over to the doggie bags, which were on the complete other side of the park from her. I grab one, and turn around. I see her walking very slowly towards me, still in poop stance. She then stood up for a few moments and walked, just to squat again. She walked all the way across the park like this, as the other owners watched. Finally she came up to me, almost on my feet and squatted again. I looked and there was a little piece hanging from her bum by what looked to be a piece of MY hair. I was horrified. I looked over to the the bench where the other owners were. Should I pull it off with the bag? They all will be watching if it do, and it would be so gross. Right when I was about to walk up and do it anyways, she saw a young man about my age a few yards away. She happily ran up to him, still hunching her back a little. The whole time the little poo bouncing around on her butt. He didn't noticed that she had a little passenger and greeted her, telling her how pretty she was and she sat down. Right on his shoe. She was trying to rub off the poo on his shoe, and I was pretty certain it was going to work. I said her name in a scolding tone and she dangled her big pink tongue out at me and moved to the other side of the man, and began scooterbutting deep into the muddy sand. The man laughed, and as far as I could tell had no idea that he almost was used as toilet paper. When she stood again the poop was gone, probably buried in to the sand.
I never found the rest of her poo, and she got a good long bath when we got home.
Cleo and I have been together for almost three months! So much has changed from when I first got her, and she is so much calmer and is a very happy dog! However, there are some things that I am going to have both of us work on for the new year. Here is my list!
