The Lamb of God, or Dog Park Antics!

OK. I had a wild weekend at Mr M's. You don't need to know about it. It just involves the fact that I have Sciatica and Mr M gave me some drugs to combat it.

OK. That's over.

The day after all the pain, I knew I had to come back home and do Paw Duty and get ready for the week, which entailed big hulking bags of trash and all, but like I said, that wasn't a factor in this story.

But I knew when I left Mr M's for home and Paw Duty, first I had to take Milo to the dog park.

Milo loves the dog park. And I do, too, I love watching him run around and trying to make friends, and when he doesn't make friends, Mr M says it's my fault because I've turned Milo into a sissy and no dogs want to play with him.

And I'm prepared for that, I tell you!

But today!

Today, Milo and I (but not Mr M, the poo-pooer) went to the dog park to play. But I wasn't quite prepared for what transpired.

For, my dear blogees and readers, Milo became a sheep.

It's true!

I'm not sure about how it happened, or the metaphysics of it, but my dear, sweet boy became a sheep.

And here's the story.

I let Milo off his leash immediately, and he ran and romped and scrambled around trees and benches. He met people and got petted and was a decidedly happy doggie. And I was happy watching him. There were at least three other doggies his size he enjoyed communing with.

And then!

Then about 3 minutes into his foray into the dog park, he became a sheep. And like I said, I know not how it happened.

See, there was this other dog. A dog only an inch higher than Milo, but a dog who was black and slim-coated and who had a shepherd's face.

And in that 3 minutes, for some strange reason, that dog decided that Milo (fluffy though he is) was a sheep and that Milo was his sheep!

I'll give you the punch-line first. Milo was totally oblivious to him (well, except for the fact that Mr Shepherd didn't want to play with him, but Milo's used to that), and just loped along doing his thing. He ran around trees and hiked. He found little doggies to sniff on. He roamed and found his way to the water bucket and the "Poo Drop Off" station.

All the while, this little shepherd dog had drawn a bead on him. He tracked Milo. He followed, with his eyes, every move Milo made.

If Milo loped to trees or dogs, this dog followed him, watching intently, shifting this way and that, and hanging a few steps behind.

If Milo decided to take off and run, this shepherd dog chased him, right on his hip, guiding him whichever way he thought he should go.

At one point, Milo decided (obliviously, of course) to go to the shepherd's owner and say "Hi." When this happened, the shepherd nipped Milo's nose as if to say, "No! You don't do that!"

Milo was totally that dog's sheep. (or bitch, decide.) It was only still so sweet because Milo had no idea what what was going on.

But the people did, and for 45 minutes at the dog park, Milo and that shepherd were stars. Everyone was getting it. I pulled out the Flip camera at one point, but realized it was now too late to catch all the good antics.

When Milo finally wound down and I decided to take him home, we left, and found out that the shepherd was also leaving - and he was parked in the van beside ours!

I told his owners to hang on, that if their doggie realized this, he'd grab the wheel and follow Milo home.

But he didn't. Milo panted a lot, then fell asleep and we made it back home.

But it was a magnificent doggie park day.

That's what I long for on dog park days, you know.