Oji at the Dog Park

So today, we decided to take Oji to the dog park up by the airport. It was pretty exciting, and we were a bit nervous at how he would do...I don't think he's ever been around a bunch dogs before.

Well, it was mostly a success. He seemed to have a good time, and if the old adage that a tired dog is a happy dog, then he was pretty happy when we left.

It was funny, though, that the very first thing he did as he got into the park was promptly go over, sniff at a bench, and pee on some poor guy's leg. We were mortified, of course, and used up most of a bottle of water to rinse off the fellow's pants. Fortunately, he wasn't wearing shorts. He took it all in stride, as if one puts oneself in harm's way if you come to a park with a bunch of dogs running around. We offered to pay for his dry cleaning, but he said not to worry about it. While Melody helped him out, I chased Oji to have a talk about the finer parts of etiquette and not using people as convenient places to pee. In retrospect, it is kind of funny (at least for us).

The rest of the hour or so that we spent there was just following him around making sure he didn't get in any more trouble. He did pretty well, but was much more interested in sniffing the various pee-scented trees, rocks, bushes, and benches than he was playing with other dogs. He'd sniff them and they him, but he really didn't run around with them much until the end. There were two beagles who insisted on following him around and licking his nether regions in a most inappropriate manner...finally he got annoyed and snapped at them a little bit. No damage, and considering the attention he was receiving, I'm not sure I would blame him. Can you file sexual harassment lawsuits against animals?

Once we got him back to the car, he just flopped on the seat for the next thirty minutes...no interest in sticking his nose out the window or anything. Just drinking some water and panting.

As we left the park, which also has hiking trails (to be tackled later), we passed by an entire herd of deer, mostly bucks, just munching contentedly on their lunch by the side of the road.


We'll likely go back again, but probably earlier to avoid the heat (and the sexually harassing beagles).