I keep hearing people talk about how mild the winters are in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve had a share of sub-freezing days (that gave my Moose some trouble with his hips) that made me wonder. At least with the sub-freezing weather, the mud solidified!
Over the weekend, though, we had some gorgeous days. The temperature came close to fifty degrees, and the sun poked through the clouds.
So I decided that Moose, Lally, and I were long overdue for a trip to the dog park. Less than a mile from the apartment is a fenced in off-leash park with water fountains for the dogs, three poop bag dispensers, and plenty of garbage cans.
We weren’t the only ones who thought it was a good day for the park. There was a crowd of dogs romping around. We made friends with Titan the rottie and a chubby little mixed-breed dog named Vinnie. Lally played a little bit of chase and Moose made a point of getting petted by every human there. We also walked two laps of the park, so we’d all be nice and tired when bedtime rolled around.
You might be able to guess from the title where this is going.
With the temperature so mild, the mud sure wasn’t frozen. I knew it was going to be messy when Moose sank several inches into the mud near the water fountain — enough to cover his whole paw and up his leg. All three of us came home wearing socks made out of mud! Not all of the park was mud soup, mind you. The walking path is loaded with some kind of mulch so it’s a little more solid. But leave the path and you’re in for a set of mud socks.
Cleaning the car out isn’t going to be as much fun as the park trip was, but it’s worth it. Maybe next time I’ll remember to put a towel on the car seat… or bring some baby wipes with me.