f r e s h s t a r t

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

 

Friends of mine who have accompanied Henry and I to the dog park have compared the scene to kids and parents on the playground. The dog owners congregate together by some benches and encourage their dogs to go play nicely together while they chat.
The owners of Betty, a black lab, announced to everyone that Betty had some sort of canine oral warts which are painless, contagious between dogs, take a month to show up, and last about two months. It was like the parents of a preschooler announced to the other parents in the class that their child had head lice or something. Everyone was polite about it while Betty's Dad #1 showed someone what they looked like and Dad #2 made jokes about how it was like measles, you get it once and then never again. Once they were out of earshot though, a few people started to grumble and look at their dogs and wonder out loud if their dog had shared the water bucket that Betty's owners usually bring over. One woman started getting worried about it spreading to humans, only to later be reassured that it wouldn't. Everyone left the park kind of early, which was a bummer, but I'm sure they'll get over it.

19:22 0 comments