Pawsome Friends

About 2,200 square feet. That’s pretty much the size of my domain before all of this traveling around happened. Other than the occasional wandering rabbit or knock at the door, there weren’t a lot of unexpected events. Oh sure, there were car rides here and there, sometimes to a park or to the lake. The lake was extra special because that’s were treat lady lived. But for the vast majority of time my humans would play with me before and after work or school and on the weekends. There were long stretches of time that I’d have the house to myself. And the bed! All. To. Myself.

That’s all changed now. I don’t have as much space in the camper, my humans are with me most of the time, and my backyard rarely has a fence now. Except for the bark parks. Those little gems are my opportunity to run free and make new friends. And there have been lots and lots of new friends! Tall ones, short ones, loud, quiet, fluffy and all types in between. You never know who you’ll meet and that is exciting! I just wish every place we stayed had a bark park to play in.

For example, we were in Florida a while back and there was an enormous fellow with a thick gold chain for a collar. I could practically walk underneath him without stooping. He helped me keep an eye out for alligators. It turned out that he was from Maine and he traveled around the country with two other dogs and their humans in their little camper. There was another short stocky fellow at a dog park in Arizona who loved to play but had a terrible drooling problem. They had a little bathing station at that park and my humans used it a lot. And there was one energetic young lady in San Diego who really liked to run. It was a huge island park where we could run free and, for over an hour, that dog never stopped running. I was exhausted just watching. Her human said the pup had a lot of energy. I think that was an understatement.

I didn’t really plan on making friends everywhere I go, but I’m open to it and it happens over and over again. Most of the time these interactions are fleeting but every once in awhile I come across another furry friend that matches my energy and I want to get to know better. Fortunately, my humans are pretty good at talking to other people and keep themselves occupied.

At one park on the coast of Oregon I got to hang out with two playful friends for a real long time. The humans must have noticed how much fun we were having because they got real engrossed in their conversation. The other pup told me her female human spent a lot of time in front of a keyboard typing and that she got real excited about a play on a screen or movie or something. We compared notes about things we do to get our humans to take us outside. For example, I go and stand by the door looking at my humans with my “how about now” eyes. If they don’t respond within three seconds, I go find them, let them know my displeasure with a few choice phrases then grab at their hand to encourage them to hurry up. My new friend and I agreed that this life would be so much easier with opposable thumbs. He was a real neat friend and I hope I get to see him again soon.

I suppose that’s the down side to these fleeting friendships … never knowing when they will be renewed. I’m doing my best to keep myself and my humans occupied in the mean time. My humans’ health is important to me so I encourage them to take several walks a day. I am happy to go along to make sure they don’t get lost. Dad says that the walks are for me but who are we kidding. He stops more than me to “take pictures”. Honestly, it’s a pretty good gig. My food dish never seems to run dry and I drink with enough enthusiasm to make my water bowl runneth over. My humans love to wipe up the splashes as they do it every time I drink. It is really fun to see how far the water can go. 

That just made me think of getting my feet wet. Something that, historically, I avoided at all costs. But among the new experiences I’ve had are cold mountain streams — as long as it doesn’t touch my tummy. I absolutely adore running water now. We came across streams  frequently a couple states back and one of them was even full of fish. Oh my gosh what a show those guys put on. The stream was shallow in a lot of places and they would splash the surface. Honestly, it was the neatest thing I’ve seen since the huge field of prairie dogs in Washington. That was a thrilling life sized game of whack-a-mole. Unfortunately, they were too illusive for me to nab one…yet. 

One thing that happens occasionally is rather disheartening. Every now and then when we get to a bark park I will get real excited as I see another pup already there. “Sweet, a new friend to meet!” But then, before I even go in, the other human will tell mine that they’ll leave so we can have the run of the place. My humans say it is OK for us to play but the other humans go with their pup anyway. It’s such a missed opportunity for all of us. I guess some pups are just easier to get to know than others. 

Rather than focus on that, I’d just offer a tip of the collar to two of my all time favorite parks. First, Fiesta Island dog park in San Diego is 90 acres of pure fun and I can’t wait to go back. The other was in a small neighborhood near Palm Springs that we found simply because my humans are open to new experiences. It was tucked out of the way toward the back of a neighborhood … and it was full of furry friends! I have not before, or since, been to such a place where the whole neighborhood liked to hang out together. There had to be 20 or 30 of us running around with all the humans visiting with each other. Simply pawsome!

We are currently in a place with lots of HUGE hills and I got to tap my paws through the really cold white stuff that I used to play in back in Minnesota. I’ve noticed that it’s much more comfortable to lay around outside here. We’ve been to a lot of places where my thick coat of fur makes it too hot but just this morning I was able to see my breath. Unfortunately, this place doesn’t have a bark park to play in so I am on the lookout for new friends passing by. I heard my humans mention that we are going somewhere warmer so I’ll enjoy this place as long as I can. And when we get to the next place I hope to meet more new friends who want to play.  

Loving the snow at the higher elevations! Still tastes the same.