Reminiscing

Sometimes I time travel. I do this by looking at old blogs to see what Ray was up to two years ago (or one year ago) on the same day. Two years ago, I posted this video of Ray at the dogpark. This morning we are once again heading to the dogpark, although I don't sing the dogpark song anymore. The dogs that I mentioned in the dogpark song don't come to the dogpark anymore.

Ray's friend Nikki developed toy aggression. Her owner used to come and walk around, scouring the park for anything that could remotely be considered a toy. She would carry a tote bag and fill it with balls, Frisbees, sticks, and other oddments so that Nikki wouldn't find something to fight over. (Nikki always found SOMETHING). Just before leaving the park, Nikki's owner would walk along throwing stuff out of the tote bag watched bemusedly by people who didn't know the back-story and watched with amusement by people who did.

Pepper, a driven Border Collie mix, stopped coming to the park too. She never really liked it when Ray chased her chasing a ball and would often snap at him. Her owner decided to walk Pepper instead of chucking balls for an hour. Last time I saw Pepper's owner, she had lost about 20 pounds. One of those health benefits of owning a dog.

Cherry the Chocolate Lab still comes to the park, but at a different time. Cherry is one of Ray's favorites so she was a bit of a loss. Her owner joined the dogpark board and comes to the park to restock the poop-bag stations. We were there one day when he was doing just that and when Ray heard his voice, the blind hound started tossing around searching for his friend Cherry. It was kind of heartbreaking. But as long as there is any dog at the park chasing a ball, Ray is happy. He lives to chase a dog chasing a ball (or even better, to hound a small, nervous dog.)

So although the cast members have changed a bit, the fact that we are still going to the dogpark has not. I wonder if it will be true a year from now?