What a Day.

I wish I could come on here and talk only about the long walks Marge and I went on, the fun she had with her Basenji friend, Buddy, and the zoomies she ran with Husky Niko.. but unfortunatey we had a negative part of our day as well.

I haven't been frequenting the dog park as much as I used to. It's muddy, small, and there and too many unpredictable dogs there. The weather got the best of me today so I decided to head out. It was fine.. a couple of obnoxious teenage pups, but nothing Marge and I couldn't handle. 'Til the very end when some woman approaches with her Pit Bull.

Mind you, I love Pit Bulls to death. I support them every chance I get. I get into arguments with family members and uneducated friends about how great they are. But they do not belong in a dog park. Ever. It's asking for trouble, and trouble is what we got today.

I was going to leave within the next couple of minutes.. and I'm kicking myself that I didn't go sooner. This dog approaches, visibly fixated, and the woman is jabbing on the dog's neck repeatedly with the prong collar such that the dog squeals in pain.

Woman comes in, dog is SHAKING with some type of heightened energy while she takes off the leash. Marge goes over to sniff. All is fine, she walks away.

Woman takes the dog's leash off and the dog charges Marge with a hurricane of nasty sounds and open jaws.

I thought for sure I was going to have puncture wounds to deal with. I don't even know how they got split up. I KNOW the right way to break up a scuffle, but in the heat of the moment I just reached my hands in there, not giving a crap if I got bit, better me than my dog.

In retrospect, it sounded worse than it looked, but in a small dog park with a strange pit bull, I was NOT taking any chances.

Put Marge's leash on and said that's it, I'm out of here.

Told the woman her dog doesn't belong in the dog park. She responds that she's never done that before. I tell her that her dog was FIXATING before she even got through the gate. I inspect Marge, thankfully she comes out of it without a scratch. Double check to make sure that she dog has shots, woman apologizes, I storm off.

I can usually keep my cool.. very rarely do I raise my voice to people, especially strangers. I turn around after walking away and see that she is holding her dog by the prong collar such that the dog's front legs are off of the ground. I went nuts at that point.. I didn't turn to go back but I just ranted like a lunatic as I was leaving.

I don't blame the poor dog at all... her owner placed her in a stressful situation, and she failed to realize that her dog was not responding well at all.

I was so upset.. if Marge would have gotten hurt, it would have been my fault for having her there in the first place.

My dog park visits will remain to be very infrequent. I'd like to still go at the very quiet times when the people I know are actually there. It is such a shame that only 10 minutes before, Marge was having the time of her life with her friends.

Part of me doesn't want to go at all anymore. Who knows, maybe I'll do what others have done and keep Marge in the small dogs section.

I am disgusted over this.