The Rain Appears to be OVER

It is Saturday afternoon, and the rain finally seems to have moved out of the area. There is still a bit of standing water on the west end of the park, the ground is somewhat spongy, and the mushrooms seem to be taking over, but our dogs and their people are slowly returning to the CCC. It seems we were lucky compared to many of our neighbors in the region. See you soon...

WE'RE FLOODED!

It's 10:00 this stormy Thursday night. The corner of Sturdy and Division is flooded, and more rain is in the forecast. We're afraid the ground is saturated... Much of the park is flooded. Please don't come to the park on Friday.
We hope to reopen Saturday--depending how much more rain we get. I will post again if things develop differently, and will keep the voice mail updated. Here's hoping for some nice, moderate weather!

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER!

I see that it's been over 2 months since my last post. Yikes! The time has flown by. It's been a very busy summer this year with our different classes meeting Monday-Thursday evenings, my husband trying to keep our trees alive in the drought, and our 2 sons being home and keeping us aggravated (and doing laundry) all summer. We're continuing with flyball class, and the 4 of us that are taking it are really enjoying it-- the instructor says all 4 dogs are "getting it" very quickly and doing exceptionally well. I understand there's a waiting list to take flyball at Paw Power Blues Dog Training Club in Lowell, and I have been disappointed that some of them haven't come here to take from our instructor, who has been teaching flyball for 5 years, has taken instruction from nationally-respected trainers, and who owns two dogs with Flyball Master Champion titles! I've advertised more than ever this summer, and I appreciate the students that we do have... We've purchased a "dome" for some extra shade in the small dog area, but have been unable to put it up with the stormy weather lately. These hot days are very quiet at the dog park, and we only see dogs and their people out there early in the morning and late in the evening. They've started the first house in the dreaded housing development across the street, and this has been the dustiest dirtiest summer in our history out here with all the dry dirt clouds flying around. At least it gives us a good excuse not to wash the windows!

As summer draws to an end, we are thinking of our fall plans. On Sunday, September 16th, we're planning another Responsible Dog Ownership Day event. We hope to have a dog photographer here, as well as adoption opportunities from some area Rescue organizations. As always, we'll have obedience and agility demonstrations from our instructors and friends. I'd love to hear any ideas or requests that our members may have about what else we can do on that occasion. Last year, the Times newspaper got our dates wrong, and the event was quite a dud. The previous year, combined with our hurricane Katrina fund raiser, we had lots of dogs and people. We certainly want to support responsible dog ownership, and also show how CCC is another wonderful option for responsible dog owners! We're also planning a "Dogtober Fest" celebration of some sort, since we've had a request from some of our members for a Dachshund Dash! This looks like a cute idea, and we'll be researching other similar races for how to proceed. No date has been set yet, although it will probably be in the middle of the month, on a weekend. We'll try to include the community and will be requesting volunteers from CCC to help officiate the event(s). Again, if our members have any ideas and/or requests, we'd love to hear from you. I'll be trying to post to the blog a bit more often as summer ends and life gets less hectic (hopefully) in our household.