Running with the Bulldogs

For the last week or so I've been taking Flutie after work over to the dog run area on the Common (i.e. the Boston Common Park, sort of like Boston's Central Park, only much smaller), but it isn't fenced in and I am way too skittish to give Flutie total freedom. To be honest, I'm not totally convinced that he wouldn’t run away, but he also doesn’t know the boundaries of life yet; he’d run off chasing a squirrel into the street without any thought of cars. Cars that are very, very fast and do not stop for curious puppies. Dan feels bad that he’s the only dog on-leash and it’s a huge pain because he tangles up the other dogs and owners in it as he runs around playing. But I just can’t bring myself to let him go yet. Like any mother, I suppose.

On Saturday some spring weather finally peeked through and we decided to walk Flutie a few miles over to Peter's Park in the South End. Peter's is the only real, dedicated dog park in the whole city; its privately run through local donations and specially built and maintained for the exclusive use and enjoyment of dogs and dog-owners. There’s an All Dogs section and a section for Small Dogs and its totally fenced in – the perfect place for us to test out Flutie’s skills off the leash for the first time.

As soon as we got to the park, however, it was clear we hadn't gotten the memo: there were, no joke, 25 French Bulldogs running madly around the small dogs' pen. Apparently, there are local “meet up” groups by breed through-out the city and Saturday morning was the French Bulldog play-date. Of course, now I want to join a Puggle meet-up group but I can’t find one downtown. Flutie, despite his and my initial reticence, ended up having a grand old time running with the bulldogs. I snapped a few pictures of the ensuing melee, the best of which I present in the following montage:

Flutie looking around apprehensively upon arrival.

The new play-mates slowly investigate one another.

Followed by the obligatory under-carriage sniff. Dogs are a bit pervy, but at least they cut to the chase.

Speaking of the chase, it is so on.

Flutie to anyone listening: "Get me out of here"

The puppy strikes back!

A romp with his new friend.

Happily surveying the territory, triumphant and with new confidence.

Flutie is so cute and hilarious with the other dogs; he acts super excited and curious to meet them all, but as soon as they start sniffing around he decides he’s had enough and beats a hasty retreat. After an hour at Peter's Park, some of that hesitance was run out of him. The bulldogs didn't want to hurt him at all, just run and chase. Once they'd catch up to Flutie, they'd only want to sniff about and then resume the chasing. Rinse and repeat. The result was a very, very tired puppy for the whole rest of the day. A tired puppy = very happy puppy parents. I can tell we're going to become loyal patrons of Peter's Park and am already praying for decent weather this weekend so we can bring Flutie back for round two.