My neighbors have been telling me for months that there's a dog park "just down the road" from where I live.  I've had mixed feelings about taking my dogs to a dog park.  I've heard so many horror stories about dog parks, from dogs snapping and attacking others to owners who just let their dogs do whatever they want.  I've heard plenty of happy stories, too, but the bad ones always seem to be the ones that stick with me.  Despite this, however, I felt that it was time to try to find this "park down the road" and see how it looked.  Strangely enough, the city doesn't have the park's address listed anywhere.  I had to do several internet searches before I finally managed to find it.  And, lo and behold, there really is one down the road and around a corner.  So I set off to find it one night, prepared to see...I'm not sure what.  I honestly thought it would be chaos.

The park is so mundane and tranquil-looking that I actually missed it at first.  It's just a large, fenced-off area with a few agility-type pieces of equipment placed around for occasional demonstrations.  There weren't any owners yelling or dogs fighting.  In fact, there was only one person inside and she had a timid cocker spaniel and a happy yellow lab with her.  And now that I've seen it, I think I may actually sign up.  I sort of want to sign up, well, now, but the way it works is that I'd pay their fee ($45) and then have to turn around and pay the renewal ($35) in January.  Renewals are paid in January and that's it.  They don't base it on when you sign up.  So I'd be paying $45 for just 3 months of access and I'm not sure that I'm willing to go through with that.  What do you all think?  Would it be worth it, given how young Ellie is, to get her there and possibly socialized with other dogs now rather than in January?

The long weekend wasn't all about looking into the dog park.  I also took the time to do a bit of gardening.  I don't usually bother with flowers this time of year, as we'll be getting hit with frost (and probably snow) within a matter of weeks, but I've been feeling a bit under-the-weather since September and needed a little something happy for myself.  So off we went, to our local Lowe's, and I picked up some pretty Mums.  I also took the opportunity to have Ellie outside for awhile.  She's been feeling a little cooped up since her spay (she had to heal and then it was raining almost non-stop for over a week...), so I figured the fresh air would do us both some good.  And I was so right!

She was a little bored at first, thinking she was just out for a potty break, but she perked up when she saw me set out my trowel and shears.  She sniffed them like they were made out of doggy treats and it was funny trying to get her away from them long enough so that I could use them.  She also decided that my gloves were super-fun.

She really enjoyed playing keep-away with those gloves!  She'd grab one and dart off in a huge circle, then drop it and fly over to get the other if I got too close.  She also discovered that helping me with the gardening is even more fun than keep-away!  I couldn't get pictures of it, unfortunately, but she would sit and watch me dig with the trowel.  Then, once I finished, she would dive right in with those stubby little paws of hers and start digging like crazy.  You could see that she was sure I wasn't doing it right, so she felt the need to step in and help to fix it.  She was so proud of herself when she was done, too!

I've got to get one more pot of flowers for this bed (I've since put a second pot in, but there's a huge gap next to the stairs) and then 3 for a bed in the front yard, but overall it was a really fun day.  And I love looking out at the cheery colors!  All this fun meant a very muddy Ellie, though, so we just had to end it with a splash!