My Most Fantabulous Dog Park Adventure - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies!!!!

Last weekend the Musher thought that I needed a little break from my duties as the official Pretty Curly Tail herder and scheduled a "date" at the Dog Park for me!!!

I must admit that since I'm the official herdy Border Collie of the Pretty Curly Tails, and it's not appropriate for me to become friends with the Pretty Curly Tails because they have jobs to do, and Cricket is in charge of security and rarely has time to sit down and talk girly dog talk (she works nights, sleeps during the day, and isn't really into painting nails and trying on fashionable ensembles), and the cats... well... they're CATS, so it can be kinda lonely without any doggie friends.

The Musher thought that I would appreciate a whole day of doggie companionship with another girlie working breed that also needed some off time to discuss the trials and tribulations of working and just have a fun day off the clock.

Off we went to the famous Terwilliger Park that has a FABulously huge off leash dog park!  I was very excited to be going, but felt a bit naked without any of my fashionable ensembles.  The Musher assured me that I looked fine with just my stylish purple collar.

When we arrived, there was the very adorable Splash and her woman Lori!

Splash is what is known as a "Golden Retriever", which means she retrieves things!  Apparently her job is to get things and bring them back.  I'm not really sure what the purpose of that is, so I asked her... um... what's up with that?  If they throw something... why can't they just go get it... after all, they threw it!

Splash explained that the whole "throwing things away" part was to keep her in fine peak physical condition for those times when she had to go retrieve things they don't throw... like pesky ducks that fall out of the sky, or tennis balls that fall out of the sky, or a beer from the fridge that fell out of the sky.  Um... I tried to explain to her that beers just don't fall out of the sky and into a fridge, but she is a lot bigger than me, so I didn't push things.

We decided to do some running around.

It was really fun just running around with Splash without having to worry about herding her, and Splash said it was really fun just running without running to go get something to bring back.

When we stopped for a quick breather, I asked her why her name was Splash.  She kinda laughed at me, and at the very moment, her thrower of things tossed a tennis ball and...

Dang!  Seriously?  She just threw herself in that... euw, water!  Dove head first into that stuff and grabbed that seriously mud covered... icky tennis ball thing!!!!  I was both intrigued and repulsed.

Wanna know what happened then....

She wanted her thrower to throw it in the water AGAIN!!!!  It was like the tennis ball was a waffle or maybe even some shrimp and pasta, but seriously... I wouldn't throw myself in water for waffles or shrimp and pasta... SERIOUSLY, I KNOW!!!!

Over and over again Splash went into the water for that icky tennis ball until she was very, very worn out, and I'm all like "um, isn't this suppose to be a day off, why are you working?"

Splash said she couldn't help herself, she LOVED retrieving stuff and if there was water involved, even better.  I said, but how do you get clean after stomping around in all of that mucky water.  Splash laughed and said, oh no, here's how you dry off...

Um... but you're rolling in grass and mud... you don't get a bath????  Splash said she got baths sometimes, but this was the best way to get clean... she also suggested that I try jumping in the water and playing in it, it was fun!

Um... erm....

 

In the water?  The icky water that has goop on the bottom of it?  There may be fishes and things in there.... look at how shiny and white my coat is... my collar would get dirty....

Ok, fine... ahem... here I go...

Now see, there's really no reason to get your feets all wet because there's this stick bridge thing here that you can just cross over and .... what?  jump in?  Seriously?  sigh... FINE.

EUW, EUW, SQUISHY MUCK BETWEEN MY TOES EUW, EUW, DIRTY WATER, EUW....

There, I did it, I jumped into the water, see!

Splash didn't seem very impressed with my display of water navigation...We agreed to disagree that retrievers like water, and Pretty Curly Tail herdy Border Collies didn't like water.  She was fine with that after I shared my recipe for Shrimp and Pasta, and after sharing a Vanilla Bean Frappacino at the Starbucks™ (MUSHER!!! HOW HAVE YOU NOT TOLD ME ABOUT THESE GLORIOUS TREATS ALL THESE YEARS????)  the Musher and I drove home... it was a very tiring but fun day, so thank you Lori and Splash for a wonderful day out!

-Bet