Yesterday we were very excited to discover that Lifestyles of the Urban Dog was featured on the Lijit Homepage. This led to lots of web surfing and blogging activities on our part – and subsequently, a serious oversight – failing to exercise the Fairmount Dogs properly. We rectified the problem by loading the girls into our near constantly broken down nine year old car that we call the dog mobile and zipped down to the playground. That we drove the short distance should illustrate just how urgently Sadie and Lily needed to play.
We parked, crossed the pedestrian bridge over the train tracks, and hiked the short trail to the play zone. Lily rushed to the group of dogs already there. The rest happened in slow motion.
Lily spotted a couple of her friends gathered near their owners. The owners were sitting on the grass and had no idea that Lily was about to greet Oliver, the 85 pound pit-mix. Lily ran down the hill as fast as she could and attempted to leap over Oliver’s mom as a short cut to greet him. The long way would have added something like three steps to her journey. Unfortunately (still in slow motion here), Lily’s leap was unsuccessful. Oliver’s mom ended up with a lap full of Lily. Lily licked and wiggled her way free. Eventually we caught up to her and she was corralled – western style – and relocated to a less conjested part of the playground.
Sadie played a part in the drama too. She was just a few steps behind Lily. Oliver and the other dogs were resting with their owners on the ground before the calm turned into chaos as all the dogs joined the wag and greet festival that Lily started. In a matter of seconds Sadie was in the middle of all the big dogs, jumping, barking and chasing.
A few minutes after that, nearly all the dogs were leashed and the playground was clear. They left Sadie, Lily and one golden retriever behind. It looked as if our exercise plans were fading out completely, but soon Dillan joined our small group. Dillan is even tinier than Sadie at around 10 pounds. Sadie, Lily and Dillan chased and chewed sticks for a half hour or so. During this time, Lily had to be corralled – western style – two more times. Once she darted towards the street to greet a dog being walked on a leash. Sadie and Dillan trailed behind. Later, Georgie – a beagle mix – arrived from Kelly Drive and again, Lily rushed to greet. Yet another chase began, more corralling – western style.
Sadie and Dillan rolled and rolled throughout all of Lily’s rush and greet incidents.
Oh the one that we do not name! Oh that Lily! Oh that Dillan! Oh that Georgie!
MM & RY 2008
