Yesterday, we took Charlie to the dog park for the first time since we moved here. Charlie had been getting a bit stir crazy (ceaselessly running up and down the hall, anybody?) since we have been trying to follow the "stay inside" advice as much as possible. When we first got to the park, there were multiple dogs on the big dog side, but no dogs on the small dog side. Knowing how much Charlie likes to play with other dogs (not much), we took him to the small dog side thinking he would be overwhelmed with the other dogs. After a few minutes, he was whining at the fence to go play with the dogs on the other side. We decided to take him over to the other side and just stay close by. Not five minutes after we go over there, a girl arrives with two pit bull mix dogs. And not five seconds after they get off of their leashes, they start picking on Charlie. We just went back to the other side and played frisbee until some more little dogs showed up.

Well, the drama continued with the two pit bulls. They pretty much bullied ALL of the other dogs- regardless of size- culminating in all of the other dogs (on the big dog side) being dragged from the dog park by their owners. The last lady that left got into a yelling match with the pit bulls' owner.

"You need to learn to control your dogs!" she shouted.
"You need to learn to mind your own business!" the pit bull owner countered.
"You just need to shut your mouth!" the first lady yelled.
"No, you need to shut YOUR MOUTH!" the pit bull owner responded.

Ahh, just another idyllic day here in sunny California.

Charlie seemed oblivious to the drama, and he played and played (even with other dogs- shocker!). When we got home, he crashed. He slept for HOURS and was in a much better mood this morning.