HAPPY NEW YEAR

A month has passed already since my last posting. The holidays were hectic, as usual. We had lots of compliments on our home's "exterior illumination," which Bob really appreciated (being his concept and all). Although the weather was gloomy and muddy, we had two nice family Christmas parties and were able to gather our own family on Xmas day. Our kids all came home-and left again. Several family members, including me, had some sort of upper respiratory "crud," and our niece, Rachel Brown, had a beautiful wedding and reception on New Year's Eve. Now, here we are, in the "dog days" of winter!

Congratulations to our good friends and members, Joe & Lori Flacke (Louise & Sammie's parents), who welcomed new human son Gabriel to their family on December 26th. Our CCC family has grown too, with several new members, as well as several former members returning after an absence. We wish to welcome them all. As we proceed in our fifth year of business, we have ambitions to improve the dog park and tweak the website as well as to expand our selection of classes. We appreciate all of our members, both veterans and rookies! Please feel free to make suggestions of any kind regarding the CCC by email or on this blog, if you prefer anonymity. (Comments won't be restricted unless they get nasty in some way.)

One concern that I've had lately is the condition of the ground in the park. As you all know, the weather's been mild and wet. The park has been busier than usual for this time of year. Many of our members come every day. I am concerned that too much activity on muddy ground will tear up our grass. In our modest travels around the country, we check out dog parks, of course. Many of the parks we've seen have had dirt for ground cover. The point is, once our grass is worn down, the only way to get it back would be to reseed and close for weeks, or to divide the park in half and only use one half at a time. I also belong to a dog park discussion group, and this is a major problem for dog parks everywhere. Many struggle with different kinds of ground covers, like bark or mulch, or more expensive alternatives like decomposed granite. We really don't want to go through that. I'd like to ask all of our members to please avoid the park in the pouring rain, or when the ground conditions are too muddy, in the interest of all concerned. Even the most rambunctious dog can miss a day occasionally! Hopefully, the ground will freeze soon and we won't have to worry about it for a while... We've come across some funny dog cartoons recently that I'll share with you here. In this dog eat dog world, we've got to have a sense of humor! Until next time.