My mum came over Saturday night to have tea with us, and to do what she could to help us out with our car/money issues, which was very lovely.
We decided to show her the local puppy park. It is basically a double fenced area, with grass, an area with bark and a huge sand pit. Throughout the whole area on the boundary is an agility course. It has a water fountain with bowl for the the dogs, as well as doggy bags. I love the unspoken rules, you shut the gates properly, if a dog is near the gate you stop them getting out, you clean up after your dog, and if your dog is being mean or aggressive you fix it quickly.

Paul loves the puppy park, he ditched us as soon as we got there and barely looked back the whole time we were there. He tends to stick with the bigger dogs who run full bolt and push each other around, rather than the little dogs who run and sniff and that is about all. Last night he hung out mostly with a Boxer, who was oddly submissive and a Border Collie who is the smartest dog I’ve ever seen. The Border Collie would fetch, bring the stick back and drop it two metres from his owner, the owner would ask him to bring it to him. The Border Collie would jump around, owner would re-ask him and he would pick it up and drop it at his owners feet. Mean while Paul couldn’t even get the idea of fetch with a tennis ball.

The two bigger dogs were easily double his size, he can keep up/out run at times with their speed, and never acts intimidated. It is amusing seeing a dog whose head is at the beginning at the others chest wrestling and giving as good as he gets. That said, he is still very submissive, which I won’t say is a bad thing because if those dogs did get nasty, well they could eat him. If the dog wins the wrestle Paulie will just drop.

I do love the atmosphere at the “Pooch Park” as it’s called. Everyone takes their dog off their lead and everyone sits back and just lets them play. People only step in if their dog is being picked on or if your dog is picking on a dog. You talk with other owners about your dogs, admire and compliment, etc. We hung there until it got too dark to see and we ended home. From the minute we got home Paul was asleep from exhaustion. We had some cheap Coles lasagna (while I had Vegetarian Shepard’s Pie) and chips, instead of planned restaurant meal to save some cash. I’m very grateful my mum could help out with cash, wasn’t a HUGE amount, but definitely enough to calm our nerves a little.

The boy’s folks spend Sunday with us, sat around talking and watching TV, and walked to the shops with Paul Anka, who showed how afraid of cars he is. The dog stole my heart and refused to eat a pig’s ear. I will pretend he also saw the visible vein and decided not to eat it! Just spend some time catching up with his folks and got to eat some donuts!

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1. Have I introduced him?