Doggie Heaven - this is a good thing I promise

Yesterday, Mom wanted to take me for a walk, because I had way too much energy and because the weather for the rest of the week is expected to be uncertain at best. She said she wanted to get me some "socialization," which I don't understand but I suspect means nationalizing my assets. The little purple elephant doesn't want to belong to the state. She'd heard of a "dog park" in Hingham, which is a couple of towns away, so she did an Internet search for "dog park" and Hingham. She found Bare Cove Park.

She'd expected to find a large expanse of grassy fenced-in space where dogs can run around off leash safely. This is not what she found. What she found is almost certainly Doggie Heaven.

It was late by the time we got there, and later still because it wasn't easy to find the parking lots. The park is enclosed by developments - businesses, townhomes, condos - so that someone passing by casually might never know it was there. Once we found the secret path, though it was pure bliss. There were many paths. We could see even more, but the park closes at sunset so we only took one. The site is a huge wildlife sanctuary and park located on a former ammunition dump. Some of the paths were plowed and weren't at all icy. There were so many new smells - new wildlife, flora, etc - and the smell of the sea.

Then there were the other doggies. They were everywhere. Pretty much all of them were friendly, and almost all of them were off-leash. This is because the park has two real rules about bringing dogs to the park: pick up after your dog (which my Mom, being a responsible Mom, always does, even though I can't remember where I've gone when she does that) and dogs must be on a leash OR well-behaved enough to stay relatively nearby and come when called. I am not that well behaved, since I'm still a baby, so I had to be on the leash. The other dogs laughed at me but in a good way. I met big dogs, hairy dogs, little dogs, girl dogs (!), boy dogs, old dogs, young dogs, and even another light-colored Golden Retriever with a red collar. His name was Checker and he was eleven months old. We liked each other very much. Their people were all very nice and friendly with Mom too. Even the park ranger was nice! He stopped to talk to all the dog people.

Mom says that we will go there again the next time that the weather is tolerable, but earlier in the day so that we can explore more. This would be very nice. Bare Cove Park is clearly Doggie Heaven. I didn't even have to bring the purple elephant, although I'm going to keep a close eye on that situation and see how it develops.