Parkin the pups

While visitng our daughter and son-in-law, we discovered something new in our lives -- a DOG PARK.

Now, I know this is country come to city for lots of folks. Dog parks exist across our nation. But we live in a part of the world where people say "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" to leash laws, and most folks have lawns for their pets to play on and use other people's lawns for their pets to poop on.

We live in a place where people say -- pooper scooper? What is that?

So we go to a community where it's dangerous for dogs not to be leashed and a neighborhood where people really do care where dogs poop. And guess what -- the community responds with a special place for dogs!

We pile up the border collies and granddog Lucy for a trip to the dog park. They enter through the double gates. Lots of other owners and dogs are out playing, and as our dogs enter, we wonder how this will all turn out.

It turned out wonderfully. It must be dog neutral ground, because suddenly, there was a pack of dogs chasing the balls we threw. Big dogs, little dogs, it didn't matter. They were all having a doggie blast. And we were having a blast playing with the pack.

We liked the dog park so much we went for three consecutive days. It was just like any other playground. The kids played and the moms and dads chatted. We encountered the largest dogs -- a Newfie, for example -- and the smallest terriers. They all just chased the border collies for the balls.

Everyone sniffed. No one got mad. No one nipped. No one bit. Even the dogs who went submissive in the sniffing stage got right up and played with the big boys. How cool is that?

We loved the experience so much, we've decided we have to get a dog park here -- our new mission in life.