Turned away at the Gate

Today is the first Saturday of September and Pine Island over on the gulf opens its doors and welcomes dogs to its beach. The last visit Shadow had to "Bark Island" was last April. I was looking forward to seeing how he would fare since he has had lots of exposure to swimming over the spring and summer.

But, alas, two girls were standing at the entrance of the parking lot and they weren't smiling. "No Bark Island, today!" the plump one said with an evil look on her face. The skinny girl was not as happy at our disappointment. Shadow was dancing around in his travel crate and could smell the water; he was eager! I questioned them for a few minutes and they gave me a flier for the rest of the winter's open dates. I could do nothing further so we left and headed back to the mainland.

We dropped by the dog park on the way home so at least the little guy could get in an un-harnessed run. There weren't many dogs or people because it was hot and humid. Shadow didn't care and off he went; it was good to see all that pent up energy get spent. But what we didn't know was that Mr. MacNasty was at the park that morning. There was a dark colored pit bull that kept jumping up on me. I asked the dog nicely to get down and quit it. He persisted. I had to use a stern "NO, Get DOWN" before he quit. Then he went over and started terrorizing a beautiful golden retriever.

The lady was upset as the pit kept harassing her golden. The owner of the pit bull wandered over and suggested the lady take her dog and leave the park. His dog was clearly the trouble maker, but he was telling her to leave. She kept telling him that HIS dog had started the ruckus and they should leave, instead. His retort was "that's the way big dogs play and if you don't like it, go home." Both he and his dog were bullies. The lady and her dog retreated to the parking lot and I noticed her making a cell phone call.

Within 5 minutes a park police guy showed up in his patrol car. He and the lady conferred and she pointed to the sign on the fence and then to the guy and his dog inside the fence. The policeman went into the dog park and talked to the man and asked that he and his dog step out of the big dog yard.

I wasn't snooping but curious as I overheard the cop saying "This is the third complaint about you and your dog. I want you to read the sign on the fence about aggressive dogs." The man read the sign and started sputtering that the golden retriever attacked his pit. As he said that, all the other patrons began laughing at the absurdity of that statement. The man blushed at his lie and snapped the leash on his dog and made his way to his truck.

All of the sudden, even though the dark cloud had moved on, it wasn't fun to be there any more that morning. I gathered Shadow up and we got in the car and drove off. I had heard about this guy more than a few times and I remembered the old homily about how dogs resemble their owners. There was a clear cut example right in front of my face.