A dog park was recently built in my part of town. For those of you not familiar with this concept, it’s basically a fenced in area where dog owners can go to let their dogs run wild and sniff each other. Doggy bliss!
Now I know I may not be the ideal dog owner. And sometimes I forget I have dogs. But I do love them and think of them as family. So after hearing about it, I decide to take the mutts over there. I figured they could use the work out. And it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they got exhausted from all the running around and actually slept through the night without barking at airplanes.
So we get there. I have Max and Murphy on leashes. Most of the dogs in the park are off their leashes, so I decide to let these two run around. They go exploring. So far, so good. I myself go walking around and Max and Murph just follow me. I think to myself, “Everything is alright”. That’s when things got a little hairy.
MURPHY’S MUG SHOT
An older man and his wife come up to me asking what kind of dog Max is, saying they were curious because their dog has similar features. I am about to answer them when their dog comes up running to them. I guess from a different angle, it looked like the dog was running up to me, because Murphy went bonkers! When their dog got about 2 feet away from me, Murphy jumped all over him. Barking. Biting. Growling.
The older man and I separated the dogs, neither one showing much battle damage. At that point I figured it was a good time to get them home. I was proud for the most part on how they behaved. Any embarassment would have to be reserved for the older man. Because all I heard from him when we were separating the dogs was, “Honey Bear! No Honey Bear! Honey Bear, stop!”. Imagine letting all those people in the park your dog is named Honey Bear. I bet he had a long drive home.
-Dave Q.
