Bum Wing

Okay..walking three dogs was a fiasco today. Yesterday while climbing/jumping down from the fence to get out of the school yard I hurt my foot. I decided that instead of walking them today, I would take them to a real dog park. Usually when I say dog park, I'm referring to the school yard that becomes a dog park about 6 pm every night. This place, however, was built as a dog park. They have two large runs. One run is for larger dogs, and one for smaller. People leave dog toys there so any dog can play with them. There is also a water fountain that has not only a fountain for humans, but one at the foot of the human fountain that is for dogs. It's a nice park, and I thought it would be nice to just let them run there instead of trying to take them for a walk on leash. It was a good thought anyway.

My first mistake was thinking that I could take Duke without his haltie. I figured I was only walking from the car to the fenced area, so I would just use his collar. Also, I noticed his haltie clip is broken, and I couldn't get it to clasp. When I arrived at the park, I was getting the dogs out and having a difficult time because they were all wound up. I finally got them all out of the car and on leash, but as I was doing something, Duke and Charlie's double leash slipped out of my hand. No worry I thought, I decided to just close the doors to the car, then catch up to them. No worry until I saw a couple with two dogs appearing out of no where!

Duke made a beeline for them. They had a large chihuahua that started aggressively barking at Duke. Duke, who had not been walked that morning, and was full of energy, ran to him and started barking and acting crazy. I really think he was trying to play, but he was loud, and it scared the owner. She grabbed her dog in her arms, but Duke was jumping up in the air next to her barking. I finally got over to them (while trying to manage my psycho dog that was also going crazy at this point). The lady was scared, but nice....at first. Then as the seconds ticked she got nastier and nastier. I apologized to her and told her the leash had slipped out of my hands. She said, "You obviously can't control your dogs." I told her they weren't mine, but that the leash had slipped out accidentally. She got even more nasty and threatened to call the police if she ever saw the dogs loose again. Never mind that her dog was just as aggressive as Duke. I think I apologized about 10 times, and she just kept getting nastier. As she was getting in the car, she made her husband come check to see if her dog got bit. I knew he wasn't bit, Duke was playing, not fighting. Finally they got in their car and left.

Everything was okay...or so I thought. I started to walk past a house that is by the park, and their dog began barking at the fence. I knew this dog lived there, but thought I could just hurry the three dogs past without too much trouble. I think I could have if I had Duke's haltie on. All three dogs started going crazy, and Duke and Charlie in particular were jumping so hard! Charlie actually pulled out of his collar, but then ignored the dog at the fence. I had to grab Duke by his collar in order to control him. We got past that fence and were on our way in to the park. That's when I noticed my finger starting to hurt.

So I guess somewhere along the way I sprained my finger. It's the 4th finger on my left hand. I even had a pretty bruise to show for my good spraining ability. Too make a long story shorter than it normally would be, I didn't stay at the park long because I needed to get ice on my hand. I'm definitely only walking Duke tomorrow, and then just up and down the street where there aren't any other dogs. I've got a hurt foot, a sprained finger....I am so ready for his owner to come home!