dog park life

My social life seems to be increasingly revolving around trips to the dog park. Maddie already has several doggie friends at the dog park and I'm making a few myself. What a great way to meet cool people! I'm a bit shy when it comes to just walking up to a group and starting a conversation (altho I'm FINE talking one on one to strangers ... its the group thing that makes me nervous!) but its amazing how easy it is when your baby is off romping and sniffing the butt of someone else's baby. Dogs are great conversation starters.

The last couple times we've been out to the dog park, we've ended up staying way longer than I had expected, not so much because Maddie was having a good time (she was!) but because *I* was having a great time. I think the dog park here is especially fun because it attracts a huge array of types of people - this is a liberal artsy college town and the dog park people are a good mix of students and local artist types and townies. And everyone out there very obviously loves their dogs.

I love watching Maddie play at the dog park. Last weekend there must have been 20+ dogs, most of them pretty big, all out running around and chasing eachother. For the most part everybody got along. Every time a new dog would enter the mix there would be a little discussion amongst the dogs about who was the alpha but then once these positions were established, everyone went back to playing. Pretty cool.

I'm hoping the rain holds off this afternoon so Maddie and I can both go see our friends at the dog park.