Hi, Dog Buddies! This week I had a blast hanging out with my buddy Jack Riley, an outgoing Golden Retriever, who is the Official Greeter at Costa de Este. I’m sure you know the resort owners, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, who are huge dog lovers. (Jack tells me she also sings sometimes.)
So, there was this special First Annual VB Dog Park Fundraiser, sponsored by Jack and the Estefans to help the park, and we all know what a fabulous place that is! I mean, 5 acres of grass to run in, OFF LEASH, plenty of trees, water stations and, one of my favorite parts, actual fire hydrants. Talk about accommodating us pooches.
Anyway it was like, whoever donated $1,000 or more got to go to this special, fancy cocktail party at Costa. Since I am a dog journalist, I got my own, personal invite from another old pal, Chase Keiser, a German Shepherd. He wrote, “I take my human, Connie, on walks two, three times a day on Ocean Drive, which is very dog-friendly. But my favorite place to take her is the Dog Park. She really digs (get it?!) watching all of us run and play! Ha, ha!”
I was pretty excited, but I did have to ask Chase about what a cock tail party is. I mean, I couldn’t really picture a lot of roosters running around getting feathers everywhere. It seemed sort of messy to me. Well, Chase is a smart poocheroo, and he explained that he heard about a human in New Orleans, a French guy, who served his pals special stuff to drink in egg cups. The French word for egg cup is cocquetier, which the French guy’s buddies shortened to cocktay, then, I guess after they had had a few of them, started calling ‘em cocktails.
Boy, you learn new stuff every day, right?
Anyhow, the party was in a really nice, fancy room, and a bunch of us dogs’ humans were there, standing around yapping. Nice people were bringing glasses of red stuff and light stuff (cocktails, I figured) and trays of yummy-looking human food, and those little square pieces of paper, right to them so they could keep yapping with each other, mostly about us pooches and the dog park. There was a big screen at one end with colored pictures of dog buddies in the park. I knew a lot of ‘em, too.
Jack spotted me right away. “Hey, Bonz, my man, glad you could make it! You remember my human, Ed, he’s the manager here.”
“I sure do!” I replied, and offered a friendly wag-and-woof. Ed responded with a nice pat on the head.
One of the people there was Jill Jones, a Dog Park director. She’s the human mom of Mr. B, a very pleasant Australian Silky Terrier. With his mom so involved, it’s no surprise Mr. B knows a lot about the park. I remember him telling me, I think it was at the park grand opening, that, even though the park’s on city property, its funds come totally from donations from humans. Us park pooches and our humans give the city money so we can use that nice big field, and we pay for a bunch of other stuff, too, like signs, sun shades, poop bags, and benches for the humans. That’s why lots of humans and their pooches are always thinking of fun special fun stuff to do – that’s what fundraisers are.
I haven’t met a dog yet who doesn’t love to be off leash and run with his or her buddies in the park. Just a few of the tons of pooches who have told me how much they enjoy it are: Lyly Kramer, a Jack Russell who visits with her human, Alla; Cali and Marley Alberga are Old English Sheepdogs who usually go with their Official Dog Sitter Robyn Reardon. Their human mom is Bonnie; Tigger Sexton-Stryker, who is a tiny Toy Poodle, has a very important job. She’s a certified hearing service dog for her human mom, Beth. Tigger says, “I love the dog park because, when I’m working I wear a special vest and nobody can pat me cuz I have to focus. In the park, I get to take my vest off and I’m free to run and play. It’s awesome!”
Lele, Chance, Sugar, Maggie, Jesse, Bumpy and Kino Verne are rescue pooches with the same human, Sean. They all help him run their business, Paw Prints, a dog resort, and he works a lot with the dog park to help humans learn the best ways to teach their pooch pals stuff and make sure their behavior is okey-dokey. They’re a fun bunch, mostly mixes. Kino is a Poodle/Spitz/Pomeranian mix, and he calls himself a Spoodleranian. Hilarious!
Siena Trammell’s a Rottweiler/Black Lab mix. “My mom, Christina, drives me to the park,” she shared. “As soon as I know we’re headed there, I go absolutely crazy. I can’t help it. Mom says she can’t even talk cuz I’m barking so loud! Me and mom are in charge of the Dog Park volunteer Ambassador Program. That’s where friendly humans show other humans around and answer questions about our park.”
“Hey, Bonz,” Jack called, “don’t forget to grab yourself a bag of treats up at the welcome table. They’re especially home-made by Siena’s mom. You gotta try one! And grab one of those cool fridge magnets for your human. It’s our official Dog Park logo.”
Well, no surprise, the treats didn’t make it home, but the magnet’s right up there on our fridge.