A Sunday tradition revived

I may have mentioned once or twice that our life in NY included a couple of hours a week at the dog park. We were at the White Plains dog park pretty much every Sunday and became part of the regulars. Cece was well known for her speed and jumping. She outraced all the dogs there, including greyhounds. Plus, it would take hours before she'd stop running, while all the other dogs would tucker out.

When we came to Minneapolis we were excited to learn about the many dog parks. Well, for some reason the dog park fences were only built to be about 4 1/2 ft tall. Cece could jump it from a standing position. For the most part she'll come when we call her, but if there's a squirrel or a bunny on the other side, all bets are off. So her Sunday trips ended.

Here in Rochester though, there's a great dog park with 6 1/2 ft high fences. For whatever reason, Cece is having a tough time adjusting to our new house. Every morning she will whimper and hide in the closets, sit in the bathtub, glue herself to me or Chris and pant for an hour. I wish she could tell us why she is so upset every morning! So we thought we'd check out the dog park and tire her out some. Just like the old days she had a blast. Her age is showing though. She ran with a bunch of huskies and some puppy hunting dogs. Her speed was still there, but within a few minutes she was lying in the shade. I can't believe she is 10 years old!

Here she is after her run.

I was very firm with Penelope about staying by me and not approaching dogs. In NY I'd always get annoyed by people who would bring little kids that would chase the dogs wanting to pet them. They'd invariably get run over by a bunch of dogs playing or knocked down by a enthusiastic slobbery puppy, and the parents would get upset. It's a dog park, people. There are hundreds of playgrounds if your kid needs to play and get energy out. Since Cece is pretty laid back and never licks, Penelope doesn't really know how to handle enthusiastic friendly dogs. She mainly sat with me at the bench and we'd wait for dogs to come to us. The beagle mutt above was a love who was really gentle.

We are excited to begin our Sunday dog park visits again. Next time I'll bring Uno or coloring so Penelope doesn't get bored as quickly. Hopefully after a couple times, Cece's stamina will improve where she can run a little more.