Day 58

Warm days are here again. It was sunny with a high of 73 today.

We took advantage of the warm weather to go to a park about 10 miles from the RV park. It's a county park that's about a 1/2 mile square. The park has a baseball diamond, a soccer field, and an elaborate children's play area. It has swing sets, slides, even a climbing wall.

Lots of other people were making use of the nice day. They ranged from a single family having a picnic to a group of about 15 cub scouts and another group of about 30 boy scouts. The cub scouts had activities and spent some time picking up garbage in the park. The boy scouts played a series of team games - football, soccer, and dodgeball.

We started by giving the dog a pedicure with a Dremel tool. She needed it badly. We'll have to do it again in about a week. Then we took the dog for an off leash walk around the park's perimeter. She loves this. It gives her a chance to run hunting patterns looking for birds. There aren't any, but she does find mice, squirrels, rabbits, and deer. Today she only found squirrels.

After the circuit we had a picnic lunch and read the Sunday paper. Eventually the dog got antsy so we did another circuit. She was pretty subdued after the second circuit. On the second circuit we came upon some people walking four mop dogs (these are small furry dogs that would make great mops if you stuck a handle up their ass). Lucy was about 50 yds ahead, between us and the other couple. She saw the other dogs and started going towards them. I blew the whistle and she came right back to us. When we got up to the couple the wife mentioned how surprised she was that Lucy came to us. People just don't bother to train their dogs.

When we got back we did some more reading. As we were reading a squirrel showed up in a tree about 20 yds from our table. I let Lucy off lead and she chased it up a tree. She ran around the tree for a while and then came back. This happened twice.

We ended the park adventure with a series of retrieves. I didn't count, but there must have been at least 15 to 20. We left with a very tired doggy.

When we got home we gave the dog a much needed bath. She's now much softer and better smelling.

Tonight we have a very tired doggy. She's been sleeping on the couch since dinner.