Off The Chain At The Dog Park With Daisy

This weekend I experienced a first. My first trip to the dog park. Ladies and gents if you have not yet visited a bona fid(o) dog park, you don't know what you are missing. If Paris Hilton were writing this blog, she would say this place was "hot."

The sun was shining. The weather was fine. And I went with Jess and her mini Schnauzer doggy named Daisy. Daisy is crazy. She's not a very big dog, but you wouldn't know it by her behavior at the dog park. She was chasing down fellow canines that were at least twice her size. Retrievers, Labs, Bulldogs . . . she would take all comers leaping into the air, sniffing butts, frolicking about. Look how cute she is! You can't resist her furry little face.

This particular dog park has to be one of Minneapolis's finest. We entered a chain link gate and immediately took Daisy off her own chain. She went berzerk. The other dogs also seemed to be enjoying themselves. As a non-dog owner, I was a little out of my element. But I did have fun watching the madness. Although we didn't walk the whole 4 acres, it was a nice hike surrounded by trees on one side and the Mississippi River on the other. We headed down to the river and Daisy dabbled in the surf but only momentarily. Many owners played fetch throwing sticks and balls into the water only to have them returned by the strong swimmers. Daisy was having none of this. Jess thinks she has a fear of the water after suffering from some sort of near drowning as a pup. I don't think Daisy missed it much. She was having a blast just running down other dogs and generally forgetting any possible cares she might have had. Needless to say, Daisy got dirty. By the time we left, she was filthy and stinky. Jess tried to rinse her off with the hose at home but Daisy didn't care for that. No sir. Dogs, apparently, love to be dirty and stinky. After the wash-off attempt, Daisy would just run around the backyard rubbing her whole body in the grass as furioiusly as she could.

According to Jess, a trip to the dog park wears little Daisy out. All that excitement tuckers her out. I'm sure this dog park trip is, to Daisy, like a trip to doggy heaven.

Going to the dog park made me, in some small way, wish I was a dog. Among these exploring hounds, there was no vanity, no pretense, no worries and no fears. Well, maybe the very tiniest dogs have fears about getting beaten up by the bully dogs, but I really didn't see any of that. It was all glorious, rambunctious, off the chain fun. Dogs. I'm officially jealous.