ChiKat

There is one woman who drives me nuts at the empty lot we use for a dog park. She brings her dog (dressed in an argyle vest) to the lot, but doesn’t want him to play with the other dogs. And she doesn’t want other dogs to play with his toys.

At a dog park, with a dozen dogs, you have to assume that any toys you bring will be played with by all the dogs. You can expect to get the toy back at the end, but it will be dirtier than before.

This woman will bring a squeaky toy, which my dog LOVES, and throw it to her dog. When my dog chases after it, she will start yelling, “BAD dog! BAD, BAD, BAD! You need a time-out! Stop stealing toys! That's BAD!”

I think I would have some sympathy for her if our "dog park" was the only place available to play with dogs off leash, but...well, first of all, it's not actually legal to play with the dogs off leash. And second, there are a ton of other empty lots, parks and public land available.

The other afternoon, she showed up with her dog and a baby stroller. But the baby stroller looked a little weird. I was across the lot, but even from a distance it looked too small for a baby. And it had a net all around it. On closer inspection, I learned that it was a cat stroller. She had brought her two cats. To the dog park.

I don’t begrudge cat owners the right to walk (wheel?) their pets, but why take them to a DOG park? At the time, there were about ten dogs playing. Thankfully, my dog was too busy chasing a butterfly to notice the cats at first, so I was able to put him on leash and haul him away. I glanced over my shoulder while we were leaving, and all I saw were the other nine dogs charging toward the stroller and the woman shouting, "Be NICE now! Everyone be NICE!"