South Boston Bark Park Grand Opening!

This morning we took a family walk to the "new" dog park in our neighborhood. I say "new" because its actually been up and operational since November. But now that the weather is nice and the word has spread, today was the day for the official grand opening celebration - it was so much fun! The board of the park did a great job setting it all up, getting sponsors and wrangling droves of local politicians to show up for speeches and ribbon cutting - and to hob knob with the constituents, of course (both the two and four-legged variety). The syndicated columnist Ask the Dog Lady gave a little speech and brought her terrier. The hope is that there will be more parks like this dotted around South Boston and city-wide.

We scored lots of delicious and useful freebies, entered the raffle and Flutie ate himself sick on complimentary treats -- here he is sipping a "dogtail" of yogurt, peanut butter and dried lamb bits.

"Shaken not stirred, please."

The only downer of the outing was losing $15 from my back pocket, so I couldn't buy more raffle tickets or take advantage of the $5 nail clips (usually its $9) being offered by B.Y.O.D. I suspect that I was pick-pocketed by some mangy mongrel.

In addition to B.Y.O.D., the Polka Dog Bakery was there, our vet's office set up a booth (Flutie loves you, Dr. Waggoner!) and two nearby no-kill animal shelters brought dogs for adoption and had information about volunteering - of course, they know have my contact info so I can get involved, even though I am not sure I'm strong enough to resist bringing a dog home with me. I have to resist ... we cannot have another dog, I can barely handle the one we already have. Also, I met the folks who run a new doggie day care facility right near us, Pawstonian. Definitely going to check them out this week for the occasional hang-out day for the Flutester. I'm not real happy with the other place in Boston, that I will refrain from naming. It would be nice to find a better day care option, especially one just a handful of blocks away from home.

"Not right now, I really need to go sniff that bitch's butt ..."

It was a beautiful morning spent with fellow dog-lovers in our community. We're so fortunate to have the Southie Bark Park and such great vendors and organizations so close by. But the fun isn't ending there for Flutie today -- now we're all (dog included) going to Dan's parents house, then to visit his grandmother in her new nursing home and finally stopping by our friend's Kentucky Derby-themed BBQ. Sadly, I don't have a giant hat to wear -- my only let-down so far on this almost perfect Saturday.