Dog day at the Pond

A few times a year, each of the regional parks in Sonoma County, or at least the ones that have bodies of water in them, open them to dogs. It is difficult to describe the enthusiasm with which the dogs approach this event. As we parked the car, dogs with their owners were swarming into the park. We could barely restrain Ozzie once he realized where we were headed. Once he realized that I was carrying a couple of sticks behind my back, he refused to walk forward until I gave him one. Then the problem became one of getting him to give it up so we could throw it into the lake....

There was a little dog that would race in from behind and take Ozzie's stick. He's not very macho and would give it up without a fight, but he always managed to steal find another one. There were dogs that didn't like the water (Hank, the Basset Hound) and dogs that went into the water and wouldn't come out (Banjo, the Newfoundland). The non-water dogs chased each other around the shore.There was a preponderance of Labradors in all colors. There were sticks, frisbees, tennis balls, congs and floats. Finding himself without a stick, Ozzie even retrieved a tennis ball, but dropped it as if it tasted bad as soon as he got to shore.

The humans slid and teetered and slipped down the slope toward the water. We all stood around getting periodically sprinkled by a shaking dog. Some of the humans looked like they could benefit from the exercise the dogs were getting, although I don't think the murky water was a good incentive for a human, even on a hot day.

OilMan got more tired than Ozzie and had to come home and take a nap....