What you can learn in a fight

You can learn a lot in a fight.

Yesterday, Mom and Dad came home and I took Dad on our evening walk. It was cloudy with some sunshines, and it was just the right warmness like it usually is... As much as I wished we had stayed in Flagstaff, Arizona (where the tree-things and the ground under them smelled SUPER NICE!!!), I think Mom and Dad did a pretty good job picking Santa Monica. It is always nice here too, and that means I can go to the different parks and play outside almost every day.

And as we made our way on our walk, I sniffed all the spots, because Dad still does not do that. I found a dead tennis ball in the gutter and I grabbed it out of there quick. I took it because dead tennis balls can still be fun, and that is no place for a poor tennis ball to be left behind. And we kept walking until we got to the park that is not really a park. It is a big grassy yard next to a place where little people sometimes go, but not at this time of year. No one was in the not-a-park, so Dad opened the gate, took the tennis ball, and threw it up in the air the highest EVER!!! I chased it and caught it and I ran the fastest in every direction I could think of. And Dad and me were running, and I jumped and ran more, and I wanted Dad to chase me the MOST!! And I wanted it to be like this FOREVER!!!

And then the mean tiny dog and the lady that can't protect herself from other doggies that don't even care about either of them anyway came into the not-a-park. And the mean tiny dog was barking her angry bark-song already when the can't-protect-herself lady took the rope off of her. And mean-tiny-dog ran straight towards Dad and me and kept angry-barking the whole time. And me and Dad ignored her, because we are playing and having the BEST DAY EVER and don't need anyone else. But mean-tiny-dog was scared that we would hurt can't-protect-herself lady (who was now SO FAR AWAY that we couldn't hurt her even if we wanted to), or was angry that we were having so much more fun than she could ever have with can't-protect-herself lady, or was just mean and nasty and needed to get nipped real bad! And she kept angry-barking and getting in my way and I told her to stop it, and LAY OFF, and GET AWAY FROM ME BECAUSE YOU ARE MEAN AND NASTY AND YOU NEED TO GET NIPPED REAL BAD!!! And then finally, can't-protect-herself lady got mean-tiny-dog to listen to her calls from far away and leave us alone.

So Dad and me got back to playing and running and jumping and I wanted Dad to chase me the MOST again. And then mean-tiny-dog came right back and angry-barked and got in my way again. And after I told her she better stop for real and she didn't, I nipped her like you're supposed to do. And she still didn't listen and she nipped me back like I was the one doing something wrong! So I told her that she was a bad, mean, nasty doggie and was too small to mess with me and my Dad! And then she got even meaner and tried to nip me harder!! And then Dad helped me throw off my collar and... What? No, Dad, just let me tell the story... and then Dad helped me throw off my collar and then I only remember what happened next in flashes, because it was a real fight! There's a flash of mean-tiny-dog biting me!! And a flash of Dad kicking at mean-tiny-dog!! And another flash of me biting mean-tiny-dog!!! And then Dad was on top of me and holding me down hard while he was somehow holding mean-tiny-dog down hard at the same time!!! And then FINALLY can't-protect-herself lady came up and said that she had this now.

And then they went to a far away part of the not-a-park and sat there. And Dad put my collar back on and I guess our MOST FUN DAY EVER was over, because then we left the not-a-park and walked home.

And from all of this I learned that can't-protect-herself lady really can't protect herself or anyone else, that Dad can pin down two doggies at once (at least if one is a tiny dog that isn't very good at fighting and the other doggie is on Dad's side) and mean-tiny-dog is a dumb doggie that picks fights she can't win, but still gets what she wants because somehow she got the whole park to herself.