Well hello Dontpugme!
There are many citizens groups getting together in my state to petition their local governments to allow backyard chickens. Most are being successful in this endeavor. The person trying to get miniature goats approved was unsuccessful however. Chickens are not allowed where I live, but that doesn't mean they aren't around. One sometimes hears then, and on rare occasion one may see one while driving down "main" street. That was a real shocker and the vehicle behind me stopped in the middle of the road and got out of his/her car. I don't know if they shooed the chicken back into a back yard or took it with them.
We went to the dog park this morning and when we arrived there was a vehicle parked in front. I thought I recognized the vehicle and knew Sky would be okay with the dog. We have peacefully existed on several occasions. However, once inside of the entrance area, the staffy that I expected to see wasn't there and instead there were two smaller dogs which were in the large dog area. No problem, they were hanging out with their people who were sitting on a bench, so we went into the small dog area for our fetch time. The dogs visited a bit through the dividing fence and it was obvious that one of the dogs was extreemly uncomfortable with Sky (tail tightly tucked and bum hunched down) and the other one wasn't much better. (I don't know why they had to come over to the fence if they were so uncomfortable, but they did, so I decided for their sake, we would head out for our walk time. Sky wasn't doing much fetch playing anyway because she was busy checking out the dogs from the other side. As I was deciding to leave, another vehicle pulled up. Two more small dogs, one of which I recognized and the other one apparently an addition to the family. They went into the large dog area with the other two and the new dog came charging over to the dividing fence shouting at Sky.
Sky did a little back at'cha, but it was a low level snark and I was able to call her away and we headed out to collect Sirius from the van and take a walk around the park. Just as I reached the van, another vehicle came in, this one containing the staffy that I had originally expected to see. I was able to get Sirius out of the van and headed off for our walk before the staffy got out of her vehicle.
We had a very nice walk. There was some moaning, groaning, and whining from my two when our walking brought us back close enough for the dogs to be reminded that there were other dogs in the dog park, but I was very pleased with the low level response on my girls. They were uncomfortable and anxious, but not way over threshold.
All in all a good morning, and I hope to get them out again with OH this evening to the battlefield.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.