Dog Park Drama

Things i did today in preparation for our trip:

• Went grocery shopping for snacks and things to eat while driving around to see the sights
• Peeled and cut up apples to make dried apples
• Set up the apples and also pineapples in the dehydrator, and then checked on it a million times to make sure they weren't getting over-dried 
• Packed all of my clothes
• Fretted a lot about who will be taking care of the dog

I'm mostly happy about the dried fruit. Yum.

Katrina "helped" me pack. Mostly by playing with all of my jewelry.

ANYHOW. That is not the most interesting thing from today. That honor goes to our trip to the dog park. Most times we go to the dog park, it's pretty calm and the dogs play and every once in a while there's a scuffle with a dog who gets too aggressive, but the owners are all laid-back and friendly.

But today! Oh, the DRAMA! 

There were three different sets of dog owners involved, in various ways. 

First off, we had the two older ladies, who spent the first 20 minutes we were there taking selfies with their selfie stick. 

Then came a lady with a pitbull (Unfortunate, because in my dog park experience, the pit bulls are not usually the problem dogs, but this one was a dog who just should not have been there. It was just too aggressive.) 

Shortly after the pitbull lady arrived, the third party arrived with his two dogs - a doberman pinscher and an old, fat dog. He arrived right on the heels of a guy with three dogs. (Brief explanation of the setup: As you come in, there's a gate that opens to a little entryway, and then there's another gate. This way the dogs can't escape, because they can't get past the second gate.) 

So Doberman Man started opening the gate to the outside while the gate to the inside was still open, and there were about 7 dogs filling the entryway, greeting the 3 new dogs. Pitbull lady says, in a kind of snotty tone, "You can't open that gate! The dogs will get out!" To which Doberman guy says, in an even snottier tone, "OH. I guess i need to go back to college and learn that!" To which Pitbull lady responds, "I guess you DO!" So they got off to a great start. 

Doberman guy put his doberman into the main dog park, and then brought his old dog into the empty small dog section. I don't think Pitbull lady saw where he went, though, because she and the two Selfie Stick ladies started complaining about how he was such a jerk and then dropped of his dog and left! Meanwhile, the pitbull completely started harassing the doberman, and Pitbull lady ran full-steam at him to stop it. Selfie Stick lady completely assumed that it was the doberman's fault, because a couple of minutes later, she totally kicked the doberman when he came too close to her dog. (Kicked. What the?) And the Selfie Stick ladies left. (After unjustly accusing Katrina of leaving the gates open.)

Doberman guy seemed to be getting bored in the small dog area, because he brought his old dog into the main area, where he followed it around, wiping woodchips off his butt. (The dog's butt.) The pitbull came over and started harassing the old dog, and Doberman guy freaked out and made it much worse but jumping in and kicking the pitbull. (Again! Dog-kicking! What is going on here?!) He then swore and screamed, "That dog just bit me!" Pitbull lady was, meanwhile, running full-steam at the dogs to stop them. She dragged the dog away, asked if he was okay, and he was all, "NO! Your dog bit me! I need to see some ID! Has he bit anyone before?!?" (For the record, Katrina and i were 5 feet away and neither of us saw any sign of his being bit.) And she was all, "No, never! He didn't mean to bite you!" And he was all, "Rage, rage, rage! That's not the point!!!!" 

They went off together to get ID or whatever, and the other guy standing nearby and i just looked at each other like, "Whoa."

And during everything, Emma was just happily trotting around with a grin on her face, playing with the friendly dogs and oblivious to it all. As was Zane.

So that was exciting.