Dog Park Incident

Yesterday I took the dogs to the dog park. I went around 10:00 am and it was already way too hot. We did our complete tour of the five acres. Then we joined all the other dogs and owners under the big trees. I sat on a picnic table away from everyone else. Zeus and Shelley tend not to play well with others so I watch them like hawks. A boy of about twelve years sat down beside me. He reminded me of Pugsley from the Addams Family. He was at the park with his Mom and their dog. Obviously he was comfortable talking with adults. First he said he was home schooled. I guess to explain why he wasn't at school. Or maybe I look like a truancy officer. He told me all kinds of stories about his animals and other animals. Two stories stuck with me. The first was releasing his old bunny from its cage. He said the bunny wouldn't leave the yard and took two weeks to die. But his new puppy loved to cuddle with it in the yard. The reason he had the puppy was the rabbit had to die first. I didn't say, "But isn't the bunny in the yard with the puppy?" Next he regaled me with a tale of his next door neighbor's dog. The dog was in an electric fence and was mean. The boy wanted to prove the dog was nice. He walked into the yard. The dog ate a hole in his leg. I asked, " What happened to the dog?" Mainly because the boy was walking on two legs and in a dog park. He replied, "The owner's wife punched him in the face. She hates the dog." Then the boy proceeded to tell me that his dog of two years is only his even though his parents and brother say it belongs to the family. "I named him. I picked him out. And we got him the day after my birthday." Now he looks me in the eye while patting the pocket of his gym shorts. " I carry protection at all times. I need it day and night." By then I was so hot that sweat dripped down my back and into my underwear. I was too dehydrated to do much. I looked down at his pocket. There was a small bulge over it. I gulped. "What are you carrying?" hoping it wasn't a gun and I wasn't threatening him. "A small knife." "Have you ever used it?" "No, not yet." His Mom wandered over and he stood to leave. The boy went and sat by a lady with a pit bull. Good choice I thought. The mom picked up the conversation. Eventually she got into that her family had appropriate names for their dog but the youngest son insisted on John. ( I am using a fake name to protect the dog.) I smiled and said " Time for me to go home." Zeus had taken his dip in the pool and was rolling in all the smelly dirt he could find. And I felt like I had been rolled in some smelly dirt too. I just couldn't wash it off.