by Carrie Boyko, guest blogger

Imagine taking your two young children to the playground, only to find it locked up with a “Closed due to lack of Funds” sign, hanging on the gate. In our current economic struggle, this scenario is now what I fear for our U.S. dog parks.

This is one of Rhupert, Dory, Gus-Gus, and Lily's best human friends.  They just love kids and are more than happy to give kisses and tail wags. 

Lily came to a couple of our dog parties this summer while she was in foster care.  She did find a permanent home with good owners and a little poodle buddy.  She was a very pretty soft dog and still visits the dog park regularly.

Best buddies.  They sniff, they tug, they chase, they do some tricks, they run around...

These are some of Oliver's (Oli's) puppy pictures; one ear up and one ear down.  He comes over almost everyday to play with Gus-Gus, Dory, Farley, and now Rhupert.  He is a Westie terrier.  He goes to the dog park, the beach, and the regular park almost every day.  He owns three girls that love to walk him and they regularly stop by to take Gus-Gus along for the fun.  Sometimes there can be up to 5 dogs over visiting one yard and playing. 

Oli gets everyone to play soccer with him.  He has his own special ball that he chases and chews for hours.

Dory and Rhupert are getting along quite well.  They love to play chase and wrestle and run around; usually an hour a night.  Rhupert is full of puppy energy.  We were told to get two dogs that were as different as possible for them to get along well.  Dory is a  four year old dominate female and it can be hard to find a match.  Rhupert is a young male and only knows fun.  They have only had one fight and it was over their dinners the first day.  Rhupert needs puppy chow to gain weight and Dory is too chubby for puppy chow but she tries to get into it

Gus-Gus and Dory do their destructive thing.  They rip and tear at their toys, shred paper and anything they can get their paws on.  Gus-Gus likes to shred paper, water bottles, and generally anything plastic.  Dory prefers paper goods and cardboard to shred and cloth.  They also play a lot of tug with their toys; Dory likes to lay down and Gus-Gus drags her around the room on her belly.  She does the same thing when we play tug with her; she just loves to be dragged.

The dogs take over the bed, as usual. 

This is just a dog we met along the way at the beach one winter day.  He and his owner seemed to really be enjoying the sunny time.