My name is Kaede. I am a dog with one blue eye and very dark brown fur with bits of white. Humans think I am pretty but they also think I have something wrong with me because of my blue eye. Sometimes they think I am blind. Sometimes they think I am mean. I am not mean. I love everyone and want them to love me.
Freddy is my best friend. He lives with us and he is a Rhodesian Ridgeback and very gentle. Sometimes when I play too rough Freddy whines even though he is much bigger than I am. Once I accidentally tugged at his ear and it bled and he had to have stitches and wear a lamp shade on his head. The humans called it a 'cone' but it looked just like a lamp shade.
Anyway, about the dog park. When we go to the dog park I bark at all the dogs who are running around. It keeps the humans guessing. They wonder why I do it because I never bark at home. They think I bark because I am bossy. Some of them think that I want to make all the other dogs play with just me. I think I bark because I just like to. Being around all the other dogs is exciting.
I don't have a special friend at the dog park the way Freddy does. I play with lots of dogs but my favourites are the puppies. I love the puppies. I hang around when there is a puppy and look out for it. Some times they hide under the bench but I get down and give them my face so they can see that I am gentle. Sometimes I want to pick them up but I never do. I also like to chase the fast dogs or have them chase me. That's an awful lot of fun. I'm pretty quick but not as quick as Freddy. One dog starts to run then another one will chase him and then another one until there are lots of us.
Dog park is a lot of fun but I like it better when we go for walks around the town. Maybe I will write about that next time.
My name is Freddy. I am a Rhodesian Ridgeback dog and people tell me I am beautiful. I live with my people in a town in Ontario called Brockville. Kaede lives with us too. She is my best friend in the entire world. She is not a Rhodesian Ridgeback. She is a mutt but she is very, very pretty and she has one blue eye. People comment about her blue eye all the time.
I go to a place called dog park; Kaede comes too. It's a place where lots of people stand around while dogs run and play and jump on each other. We go to dogpark when there is no snow left. When there is snow we go to watch our humans cross country ski but Kaede and I have so much fun running fast and jumping on each other that we forget, sometimes, to watch the skiing.
The first time we went to dog park after the snow I saw my old friend. He is a Husky dog and I love him a lot. His name is Niko and he wears a purple collar that has turned his fur around his neck purple too. There is another Husky who looks just like Niko but I don't love him at all. I love Niko. When I see Niko I run over to him and we run beside each other and then we jump into the air and we bump each others chest. I think Kaede gets a little jealous because she runs along beside us and barks and barks and barks. Kaede never barks at home. Not even when she is outside too long and wants to come in. She sits at the door and waits for the humans to let her in. I don't. I bark my head off and they always let me in right away.
Anyway, Niko is the only dog at the dog park that I play with. I like to be around the other dogs but I don't like them as much. As soon as I saw Niko I knew that I wanted to be his friend. Last summer and fall I played with him a lot but didn't see him when there was snow on the ground. When we went back to dog park I saw Niko coming into the park and I ran, excitedly, to the fence. Even before I smelled him I knew it was him. He knew me too, after all that time, he knew it was me, Freddy, and we threw our paws around each other and hugged. Except for Kaede, Niko is my very best friend in the world.
