The dog park.  Last night Jimmy and I were walking the dogs past the playground and we saw a group of dogs.  Their owners waved us over and we crossed the street and entered through the chain link fence to the playground.  The sun was low in the sky and we spent about 45 minutes there, throwing the balls and enjoying the evening and the company of dogs.

I'm not sure what happens when all these animals get together but it's definitely primal.  The dogs go about being dogs and so it makes the silly niceties of polite conversation seem unimportant.  There is a ball and green grass and a little breeze... let's smell each other and run back and forth after the ball...that wonderful wonderful ball.

One of the ladies works with an Australian Sheppard rescue.  One of the guys adopted one after watching it for a weekend as a favor.  He didn't stand a chance.

The sun is just about gone and we attempted to get the dogs and people to line up for a portrait but it didn't work too good.  BB was the last in the line up and by that time the sheep dogs were bored with the excersise and found the balls.  Even after Larry put the balls away while he went on a poop scoop patrol, the dogs dug them out of the duffle bag and were ready to play more.

BB and one of the mixed breeds took turns urinating on the same patch of turf.  They did that for about five minutes.  Then BB walked over to me and urinated on my leg to show the other dogs that I was his.  Nice.

Teddy was a little scared at first and spent several minutes trying to get into my arms.  He cried and his expressive ears were back against his head and his thin tail was nowhere to be found.   I tried to comfort him but one of the ladies told me to stop and just let him get used to all the attention.  After a very short time, Teddy was over the initial reaction and was off in the pack.  He even fielded a few balls and brought them back, his tail wagging his little behind back and forth so fast his path was zig zagging.

We walked back in the dark and I thought how easy it was to enjoy the time spent in the company of dogs.