We had an interesting trip to the park this weekend. We sometimes go to this small fenced in park in Oakville, that doesn't have a lot of dogs there. We spend most of our time at Jack Darling in Mississauga, but our little guy doesn't like the fact that there are so many dogs, so will spend the entire time stuck by my side and refusing to play. The small park allows him to do a little playing if it is nice and quiet there. It was just our two boys there this weekend, but as we were about to leave I see this golden retriever strolling down the path by himself. No owner, no leash, just taking a nice walk alone. As he gets close to the park, I opened the first gate and comes straight in to sniff both of my boys, still no one in sight. I'm able to get a look at his collar, he was a sweet friendly guy, and see at least he has a number on his tag. We decide to check with some of the people at the community garden by the parking lot to see if he is theirs before calling. I put him on Toby's leash and let Toby follow me since he won't get five feet away from me. Duke is ecstatic that this new guy is coming with us and can barely contain himself, thinking he has a new brother. The GR is happy to come along. By the time we get to the parking lot a van pulls in and a woman and her son jump out and start calling the dog. He starts to get excited and pulls towards them obviously recognizing them. The woman says that every time he gets out he comes straight to the park (maybe you should watch him more closely then)
. She wasn't sure it was actually him at first because he was behaving himself for me. Duke was a little depressed when we came home without him.
Then today as we are driving down Lakeshore, we see these two beagles playing on the sidewalk off-leash. How insane do you have to be to leave two dogs off-leash, especially on a street as busy as Lakeshore and especially a couple of beagles. We couldn't even be certain that they belonged to the two people walking behind them, or the person on the bike in front of them. I feel like we should've stopped and asked but it was rush hour and on the opposite side of the road. Some people amaze me with how thoughtless they can be. I couldn't live with myself if my dogs had ran out in traffic and been hit just because I didn't want to use a leash. Let alone the poor driver of the car that would hit them and feel terrible because of my stupidty.