And Now For the Main Event -- Mud Wrestling!

It was a beautiful fall day today and the temperatures were in the high 50's/low 60's. What a great day to take the pooches out to the dog park. Recently, one of the local off-leash dog parks had a terrible incident of two dogs being poisoned while hiking (both dogs died) and so I was a little worried, but decided to take them to the one dog park that I can keep an eye on them most of the time -- located at the mouth of Emigration Canyon.

(Can you say "Mud Pit"????)

The major downside to this park is, that whatever the season is, it is almost always muddy -- but today it was even worse than usual. Ugh! However, the dogs LOVE it, so we played frisbee, until the frisbee was dragged into the pond and sucked into the mud, never to be seen again. :(

"Where did that bright red rubber frisbee go????"

The park is actually located in a beautiful area just at the mouth of a local canyon (above This is the Place Monument and the Hogle Zoo). If the dogs would just stick to the grassy area and chase the frisbee and ball everything would be great.

But the huge, muddy pond is a magnet to the dogs.

And so they look like this . . . . . :P (Yes, that round item is, indeed, a mud-caked tennis ball.)

They just can't help themselves and stay out of the mucky, nasty water! (Rusty greets a friend - well actually, Rusty hates most other dogs, so he was actually saying "Mom, do I have to be nice????".)

(This poor German Shepard pup is only 8 mos. old, but he had the worst dysplasia I had ever seen -- however, his stupid owner said "Oh no, he's fine." This poor puppy could barely walk and he was a major sweetie who hung out with us most of the afternoon.)

And we finish out the day with this . . .

With a big sigh, my son and I bathe the dogs and the spouse dries them off. (The mud STINKS!) I don't think I'll be going to this park again for a while.

A Visit With Friends

Today we went to visit a friend who has a new Border Collie puppy. Little Zin (the puppy) is about 11 weeks old and she is sooooo adorable!!

My son sure thought she was especially cute (and all the way home I had to tell him that "NO! We were NOT getting another puppy")!

Zin has a very shiny head in this picture because Margie (her Human Mom) had to clean a big smear of poop off so we could keep taking pictures.

Zin was also very willing to get into the wild ball game that Zephyr (Zin's older brother) and Allie were having. She likes to run with the Big Dogs!

This is as close as Rusty would get to Zin -- he was afraid of her. (Big wuss kept growling and hiding behind my legs.)

A little sibling rivalry here. (Zephyr and Zin toussle.)

Allie and Rusty are actually watching the ball -- not ready to pounce on Zin.

It was a good way to end the week and I'm looking forward to our next visit.