Baby Blues

"Uh oh," I thought to myself. I was watching as a woman entered the dog park with a dog and a little, tiny baby nestled in a carrier on her chest. There was a blanket draped over the baby's head to protect it from the morning sun. There is a dog park rule that kids have to be over 9 years old to enter the park but it doesn't say anything about babies (do they qualify as kids?) and people do take their kids in when necessary. I always try to keep a close eye on Ray when there are kids in the park, he has knocked them over by jumping on them on more than one occasion. He can't help himself, he is extremely attracted to small children.

I was rather far from the gate where she had come in and was watching Ray to see if he would "notice." He started to make a beeline for her (HOW does he know???????). I hotfooted it in the same direction to try to intercept him but my hound covers ground much faster than I. He reached her and tried to jump up enticed by the intoxicating scent of a newborn. She fended him off and I watched horrified, as first one, then the other, tiny, dangling, baby foot disappeared into Ray's mouth. I arrived at the scene and grabbed Ray's collar to keep him from eating the rest of the infant.

"I'm really sorry," I said to the woman, "Ray loves kids and gets hyper-excited around them, I'm not sure if it's because he's blind or what," (always play the blind card when there is a possibility that Ray is in trouble - it almost always works.) "Awwwww," replied the woman, "It's okay, Cameron (her dog) does the same thing. He loves her feet." She lifted the blanket to reveal a tiny girl with a head full of curly, soft, black hair. The baby was still asleep. "She's still sleeping!" I exclaimed. "I told you," said the woman, "She's used to it, her feet get licked all the time."

Ray had calmed down a bit so I let him go. He returned to the baby feet. I grabbed his collar and dragged him away a bit then turned him around and pushed him away from us and into the park. I stood by the woman chatting (and as protection) as Ray ambled off in search of fun.