From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, Great Works of Cow Literature:

The Three Brisketeers
With their famous mantra, "One for all, and all for chicken!" the Three Brisketeers set out to stop the powerful Cardinal Le Broilier. Pledging their loyalty to King Stewy XIV, the inseperable Flank, Frank and Shank become masters of both sword-fighting and hoof-to-hand combat.

Happy New Year!

After a very long day yesterday, we are finally home. Our luggage didn't make it with us, but we're so grateful we made it that we're not the tiniest bit troubled about our bags. And, of course, we're still on East coast time so I'm up cursedly early.

We left my aunt and uncle's house with plenty of time to make our flight yesterday morning. What we weren't expecting was the snow storm we encountered about five minutes into the trip. It slowed us down a lot and we arrived in Providence without a moment to spare to return the rental car, shuttle over to the airport and get on our flight. It ended up being totally moot because, as we were on the shuttle heading over to the terminal, we received a message from the airline to let us know our flight had been canceled. At least we didn't have to rush anymore.

We waited in line with a whole lot of other stranded passengers to rebook our tickets. Since the forecast was calling for more and more snow overnight, we just wanted to get out of Providence yesterday to anywhere to avoid possible cancellations this morning. The agent got us on a flight to Chicago late in the afternoon, but couldn't get us to Portland until this morning. We were fine with spending a night in a hotel and were just happy to be on our way. I gave the agent a few Hershey Kisses in appreciation for the re-booking and he upgraded our seats for free. Woot! We had him check our bags just to Chicago (instead of all the way through to Portland) so we could pick them up when we arrived and have them with us at the hotel.

Upon our arrival in Chicago, Mr Moo noticed there was a flight to Portland in a couple hours. We went straight to customer service to see if it was possible to get on it. With the storm and all the flight cancellations going on, we were hoping enough people wouldn't show up for us to get seats. It was no problem getting on the stand by list. The big issue was our bags. Since we were expecting to overnight in Chicago, our bags were only checked that far. This meant we were going to have to exit the terminal, head down to baggage claim to get them, go back upstairs, wait in line to re-check them through to Portland, go through the whole security rigamarole again and get to the gate for the Portland flight in about 90 minutes. I knew it was going to be a serious struggle for us to make it in time. When we had first arrived at the customer service desk, I immediately gave the agent a couple more of my candies as a pre-thank you for getting us on the stand by list. Since he was pleased we were being nice and not screaming at him (like pretty much everyone else around us was doing), he asked us for our baggage claim tickets, called downstairs and had them transfer our bags to the new flight for us. That meant all we had to do was walk over to the gate and make ourselves comfortable. As I tell everyone who asks us how we deal with the headaches of traveling, smiling and being nice to people always works loads better than getting upset. We are proof of that.

We headed to the gate for the Portland flight and made sure our names were on the stand by list. We're not sure if it's because of our frequent flier account, Mr Moo's former elite status or the fact that I gave the agent at the gate the last of my chocolates (I will never travel without a bag of them in the future!), but, on the list of nearly 30 people waiting for seats on the flight, we were put on the list at numbers 4 and 5. We got ourselves something to eat, grabbed up a couple seats and waited. Once everyone with confirmed seats boarded, they started calling people from the list. Man, they seriously do not wait long for you to answer once they call your name from the list. The plane is ready to go and they're trying to put butts in the handful of empty seats remaining so you have got to be ready to run on board when they call you. They called the first few people and gave them about five seconds to respond. When there was no answer, they called our names. Mr Moo and I were sitting right next to the counter with our carry-on bags in our hands. We leaped up shouting, "We're here! We're here!" We could barely believe it, but we were on our way home.

We landed in Portland on time right around 2330. We ended up ringing in the new year with everyone else from our flight while standing around at baggage claim carousel #10. Exciting, eh? :-) Unfortunately, we were still standing there after everyone else got their bags and left. Come to find out, even though the agent called to have our bags transferred to our new flight, they never made it. Oh, well. It wasn't a big deal since we were on our way home. We can live without our dirty clothes. They took down all of our information and submitted a request for the bags. They'll be put on the first flight this morning and a courier will deliver them to the house this afternoon sometime. (insert heavy sarcasm here -->) I'm absolutely devastated I can't do laundry yet. By the time we shuttled out to long term parking (in the pouring rain - welcome back to Portland!), drove home and got into bed, it was just after 0200. Factor in the time zone change and it felt like 0500 to us. We were just a little bit pooped, but soooooo happy to be home.

Today, we have nothing planned aside from paying attention to Josie (who yelled at us for hours after getting home last night), waiting for our luggage and getting Oscar back from D, the behaviorist. I spoke with D yesterday about Oscar's time at doggy boot camp this week. She said he did excellent and has made good friends with her giant dog, Bradley, as well as a terrier with aggression issues she's been training. The terrier is about the same size as Oscar and, apparently, they've become good buddies. I hope Oscar doesn't get too depressed having to leave him and come back here.

Other than that, I think we're just going to be slugs all day.

When we went hiking with my brother on Tuesday, with the wind chill factor, it was -5F/-20.5C. Currently, in Portland, it's 52F/11C. We feel like we're cooking!

Lord Oscar is home! The behaviorist dropped him off about an hour ago. We can definitely see a change in him and, so far, it all seems for the better. We'll see how things go as the day progresses.

Suitcases have arrived! Woot! A courier service just dropped them off at our front door. And only 24 hours and 15 minutes after we landed last night. We're looking at the bright side. It could have taken much longer or the bags could be completely MIA. That certainly wouldn't have been a good way to start the new year.

It's not quite midnight, but my jet lagged brain thinks it's 0300. Time for bed methinks. Goodnight, fishies.

Oscar says: Happy New Year!

We had an interesting day with Oscar yesterday. He did great all afternoon. He was calm, obeyed our commands and paid absolutely no attention to the cat whatsoever. However, once the evening rolled around, he started to get a bit cranky. I think D had him up very, very early yesterday morning. He then spent all day running around and not in his crate. That's not his normal schedule and I think he got overtired. I went to pet him while he was asleep in his bed. He got very growly and aggressive with me and we ended up having to roll him. From then on, we could just tell he was exhausted and totally irritable. Since he's spent the last two weeks with morning people, his schedule is a bit wonky. I'm sure we could have put him to bed at any time after about 2000, but we needed to get him back on our schedule. This meant he had to stay up until midnight so he'd sleep through the night without needing to get up and go out before the buttcrack of dawn. He wasn't happy about this, but - sorry, little dog - that's life.

On an even less bright note, I'm getting sick. My throat is burning and my glands are all swollen. I did so well to avoid everyone's germs the entire time we were away and now I get sick. I'm fairly certain I picked something up from the little girl sitting behind us on the flight from Chicago to Portland. She coughed and hacked all over us the entire flight and we had no way to escape it. What's even more irritating is the fact her mother made no effort at all to get her to cover her mouth when she was coughing either. I said to the guy sitting next to me during the flight, "I bet you a nickel, in two days, we'll both be sick." Self-fulfilling prophecy, I guess.

I got our suitcases unpacked this afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised to find there wasn't nearly as much laundry to do as I thought there was going to be.

I still only got one load done though because I feel like crap today. Hopefully, I'll feel better and get it finished up tomorrow.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 188

Click here for the entry form.

Over Christmas break, I was finally able to close several rounds, which had been open for weeks. Yay! There are a couple rounds of the movie contest still open. Take a look and make a guess!

My aunt pointed out I had only posted photos of my friends and none of my family over Christmas break. It wasn't an intentional slight. I hadn't taken any. I was so busy helping out Christmas Day I forgot to take any. I did manage one before the crowds started arriving.

That's Mr Moo and my aunt getting ready to carve the turkey. She cooked a 24 pound bird and also ordered two additional cooked turkey breasts. All of the meat from the whole turkey was eaten during dinner and the rest was gone within another day or so. Food goes quick when you're feeding 30 people.

I did a jigsaw puzzle while I was at my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas.

They and some company put together the border then got distracted with other things. I can't go to bed with a puzzle unfinished so, when I got back later in the evening, I stayed up and finished it. With all of the faces and small pictures, it went together quite quickly. I like those kinds of puzzles.

It has not been a good day today. For starters, I'm still battling this head cold thing. It's not horrible -- I've been much sicker in my lifetime -- but it's definitely annoying. My ears are plugged up, my nose won't stop running and I'm just all around very berry tired. I haven't done much for the past few days except lie on the couch wrapped up in a blanket. Hope it's over soon.

And the crowning glory of my day from hell: Oscar bit me quite severely tonight. Since we've returned from vacation, his resource/food guarding has gotten much worse. After I fed him his dinner this evening, he started growling at me a little. I was in the process of correcting him when he went completely ballistic, lashed out and bit me on the thumb. In the process of grabbing and rolling him, he got me two more times. My thumb is now a hot mess.

It looks bad and hurts like a you-know-what, but nothing is broken and I didn't need any stitches. I iced it for a while to get the swelling down. However, I can already tell it's going to swell up overnight and be nearly impossible to bend come morning.

As for Oscar, he eventually calmed down and submitted. After that, he was fine. As Cesar Millan always says, dogs live in the now and don't get hung up on the past. He's totally right. Almost immediately after it was over, Oscar approached me with his tail wagging as if nothing at all had happened. His psychotic moment was over and, as far as he was concerned, everything was back to normal. It's not going to be as easy for me to forget it all, but I have to for his sake. If I get hung up on this, I'll cease being an effective leader and his training will stall. Tomorrow is a new day and we will start again. One day at a time. One day at a time.

My thumb is scabbing over quite nicely this morning.

The swelling isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Guess the icing last night helped. I'm still having trouble bending it, however, because a lot of the scabs are on the knuckle and are tight. If I flex it too much, they'll split open, which won't be one bit of fun. The overall pain isn't too bad. The thing that hurts the most is the bleed under the nail. I can't put any pressure on that without wincing. Looks like I'll be spending at least a few days with a useless thumb. Thank goodness I'm right handed.

As I'm sure all of you know by now, our dog, Oscar, was seized from a home in California because of neglect and abuse. Not only was he treated poorly, underfed and never taken to a vet, he never went to a groomer either and his nails were allowed to grow uncontrolled. As a result, the quicks have gotten much too long and he looks like a canine version of Florence Griffith Joyner. To compound the problem, his nails are jet black so we can't even see the quicks. We were told to just trim his nails until we start seeing the small dot of the quick at the tip. Umm, no thanks. I've seen what happens when you trim an animal's nails too much and I wasn't even going down that road.

I learned the self service dog wash, which we go to, offers grooming services during the week and have taken him there a few times. They use a Dremel tool, which is much gentler than clippers, and they are very patient and slow with him. I had been taking him every two weeks, but it's been almost a month since his last trim because of Christmas. For the sake of what's left of my floors, I decided to take him again this afternoon. This time, I asked specifically about what we could do to get him looking a little less like a falcon. The groomer assured me weekly visits for a month would correct the problem. She said, if we were good about bringing him in for a trim every single week for the next four weeks, his nails would become short enough that we won't even hear them clicking on the floor anymore. Apparently, every time you trim the nails and just barely hit the quick (like she does) the quick retracts and you can trim more the following week. After that, we'll only have to bring him in once every four weeks for maintenance. Sounds like a good plan to me. I'm anxious to see how well it works.

Just for kicks, I asked if they had a "buy 10 nail trims, get one free" or something similar plan. She took a minute to consult with the owner. Upon her return, she told me they have a "buy nine, get the tenth free" plan, but it only applies to dog washes. However, because of all we've done so far to help Oscar and the fact that I'm one of the only owners she's met willing to commit to do so much just to take care of my muttley's nails, they would let me do the same plan for the nail trims. Woot! It never hurts to ask.

In order to help Oscar get over his food aggression issues, we're going all the way back and re-training him how to eat in a calm manner. He's no longer getting his food in a dish on the floor. He gets way too protective of it and this triggers his aggression. For the time being, we're hand feeding him.


He must sit, be calm and be quiet before he gets what is in my hand. I'm also working on petting and touching him while he eats, which was something else that triggered his aggression in the past. Eventually, we'll re-introduce the dish back into the equation, but only once he's much more used to our hands being in his face while he eats. It's going to be a long, slow process, but it's what he needs right now.

In order to make him more submissive and teach him to stay with us, Oscar spends pretty much all of his time outside of his crate tethered to one of us.

He goes wherever and whenever we go, whether he likes it or not. To say he is not a big fan of these circumstances would be an understatement. However, it is working. When we do let him off leash, he no longer goes tearing off to parts of the house where we can't see him. And, when he does wander off to explore a bit, he comes back on his own to check in. It's making it much easier to keep tabs on him while he's in the house. It's also helping with his training outdoors. A couple days ago, I started letting him off leash a few times while outside to see how well he would do when I called him to come. If he got distracted with smelling something and started wandering off, he became deaf and required more calling. If I managed to get his full attention right away, he not only came when called, he ran back to me. In the end, we had more successes than failures so I was pleased with his progress.

This morning, I was woken by the sound of the dog barking. We keep Oscar's crate in the corner of our bedroom. If he barks, it's very, very loud in there. This morning's barking sounded strange and muffled. In my groggy state, I just assumed Mr Moo had gotten up, taken Oscar into the office and closed the door. I wouldn't have thought any more about it except it continued. Mr Moo would never allow Oscar to bark continuously like that. I peered over the edge of the bed and found Oscar curled up sound asleep in his crate. What the frell? I managed to wake up enough to give a good listen to the "barking" I was hearing and sort where it was coming from. Are you ready for this? It was Stuka, the parakeet! Good grief. On the few nights when we put Oscar in his crate before we go to bed ourselves, he has some separation anxiety and does bark a bit. As per everything we've read, we just let him bark because any attention (even yelling at him to be quiet) is good attention in his eyes and encourages him to bark more. Apparently, the bird has heard this enough and has learned to mimic it. And, he's such a good mimic, it even sounds muffled because he has heard it through a closed door. Amazing little bird.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 189

Click here for the entry form.

Yesterday, we took Oscar to Forest Park for a hike and some Geocaching. In the end, I think we did just under four miles of hiking. That's quite a lot for a dog whose legs are only 6" long. On the way to the second cache of the day, we came across a log which had fallen across the trail. The first time, Oscar leaped over it like a champion show horse. We tried to get him to do the same on the way back so I could get a photo, but, of course, he wasn't co-operative when I had the camera out. It wasn't nearly as graceful as the first time, but he still made it over with a bit of prompting.

Oscar seems to really love hiking in the woods.



The bath afterward to clean off all the mud on his undercarriage... not so much.

I have been chosen. Farewell, my friends. I go to a better place.

I wish.

Oscar Update #894

Hand feeding. It continues. Successfully.

Is there anything as sad as a decapitated Christmas tree?

We started packing up and putting away the decorations tonight. I still can hardly believe another Christmas has come and gone already. Not only that, January is half over already, too. Slow down, time! You're going by too fast!

For, what I believe is, the first time ever, Mr Moo paid attention to my not-so-subtle hints and got me what I wanted for Christmas.

White Christmas on DVD, my new all-time favorite movie, and Under the Dome, Stephen King's latest novel. I've already watched the DVD about 30 times. I haven't sorted how I'm going to read the book just yet though. It enormous and weighs about 80 pounds. I'm afraid if I set it in my lap, it will cut off the circulation to my legs.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 190

Click here for the entry form.

Mr Moo bought me a couple new puzzles recently and I finished one of them over the weekend.

It's One Hundred Dogs and a Cat from the "One Hundred And One" line of puzzles from Ceaco.com.

He also bought me One Hundred Cats and a Fish.

I was perfectly content to have just these two, until I spotted this one, which is coming out soon:

One Hundred Cows and a Chicken! How funny is that? I hope they release it soon.

This is what Geocaching at -5F/-21C looks like:

That's my brother and me. Mr Moo and I had promised to take him hiking/Geocaching over Christmas break. Between his wonky work schedule and rain every other day, the sunny but freezing cold day was the only one we could do it. Everyone thought we were crazy for going, but we all had on plenty of layers so it really wasn't as bad as it would seem. My brother had never been Geocaching before and wasn't sure what to expect. Once he made his first find, however, he was hooked.

He was so determined to find them all, we practically had to drag him away from one that proved impossible to find due to the snow cover. We had plenty of other successes during the course of the afternoon though.

The trail we hiked was an old abandoned railway. It was very scenic. And icy!

I took you-know-who to see the vet today.

We've noticed recently that he seems to make an excessive amount of urine. It's truly unbelievable how much wee can come out of such a small dog in such a short time. Events on Monday night finally triggered a call to the doctor for a check-up. In the evening, right around the time Mr Moo came home from work, I took Oscar out for four potty breaks in a 45 minute period. He couldn't get outside fast enough and urinated for quite a while each time. After the fourth outing, I figured we'd be good for a while. Not 10 minutes later, as we were making dinner, I noticed it had gotten awfully quiet. When Oscar is out of his crate, quiet = trouble. Sure enough, he had gone into the laundry room and peed again. He was wearing one of his little diaper/cummerbunds, which soaked up a lot of it, but there was still a huge puddle on the floor. And this was just 10 minutes after his last trip outside to do business. We both immediately agreed this is not normal.

I was instructed to not let him pee before going to the vet's office for his appointment this afternoon so they could get a fresh urine sample. I put his diaper on him as a safety precaution and off we went. Poor thing had to pee so bad he whined and cried the whole entire way there. Amazingly, he managed to hold it and one of the techs collected his sample upon our arrival. The doctor ran several tests while we were there and gave Oscar a full exam. The urine sample didn't show any signs of an infection and the doctor didn't find anything weird going on inside his plumbing. He took a blood sample to run a panel to check for anything else that could be causing the problem and will call with the results in another day or so.

In the meantime, we're thinking there are a couple other factors that could be causing all/some of this. First is just general excitement. He gets let out of his crate right at the same time Daddy gets home. He just about loses his mind over it all every day. We've also been giving him rawhide bones while he's in his crate to curb his boredom/barking. The doctor said they can be salted, which makes him overly thirsty and drinking lots when he gets let out. Finally, once he's let out, he is fed his dinner then we often play and train a bit. All of this gets things moving more rapidly, too. We'll be changing things up a bit to help him be more calm in the evenings to see if that helps.

The vet just called. Oscar's blood work came back perfectly normal. Looks like our suspicions were correct and his excessive peeing is an over-excitement/too much water issue after all. We made a concerted effort to keep him calmer last night, which made a big difference. He went out twice and was then good for a couple hours until Mr Moo took him for his nightly walk. We're also going to start monitoring his water intake. The doctor said a dog his size should be drinking about 30cc per pound, which works out to be about 1.6 cups of water per day for him. I don't even need to measure anything to tell you he's drinking way more than that every day. Starting this weekend, no more drinking like a camel. Sorry, pup-pup!

Since he was such a good boy at the vet's office yesterday, Oscar and I stopped at the pet store on the way home to buy him a new toy.

I'm taking bets on how long the green "ears" will last once he gets a hold of it.

Tomorrow morning (well, technically, today) is going to be an interesting one here at the Moo House. When Mr Moo leaves for work, he's going to leave Lord Oscar downstairs, out of his crate and unsupervised for the first time ever. It will only be for a couple hours until I drag my fat butt out of bed, but we all know how much trouble muttleys can get into in no time at all. Fortunately, he's never shown a lot of desire to chew on anything and he'll have several toys to play with so he should be okay in that regard. Our biggest concern is the peeing problem. Mr Moo will take up the water dish and put Oscar's diaper on before he leaves. All we can do is wait and see how he handles it. More than likely, he'll probably end up sleeping the entire time. Wish us luck!

Everything appears to have gone well this morning. Yay! No poop on the floor. Dry diaper. Couches are intact. It appears he spent half his time chewing his rawhide and the other half sleeping. He barked a couple times immediately after Mr Moo left for work, but quieted right down once I told him "Quiet!" and he realized he wasn't alone in the house. Looks like our first trust exercise was a success.

We have just returned from taking Mister Oscar on his very first ever visit to the off-leash dog park. We had no idea how he was going to react so we were hoping it wouldn't be very busy on our first visit. Today is a weekday and it's raining. Perfect. When we arrived, there were only two, albeit very large, dogs already there. We let His Highness off his leash and just let things happen. Much to our delight, he did great! One of the dogs was a rotty, who probably does poops larger than Oscar. Oscar totally stood his ground when the other dogs approached, but was very friendly when it came time for butt sniffing. Once they all greeted, Oscar wandered off on his own to explore and didn't make any sort of fuss at all. A few more dogs showed up while we were there and he greeted everyone (people included) very well. He even ran around and played with one of the other dogs for a little while. For the most part, he kept to himself and just explored, but I'm sure, as we go there more, his confidence will build and he'll start to play more. We let him wander around for quite a while. Once he started getting really wet from the rain, he started to get a little tired and cranky. Another dog showed up who was a bit too large, energetic and trying to dominate everyone (aka humping everything in sight). Oscar was having none of that and got a little growly. I called him to come and put him back on the leash before it could escalate. When he growled a bit at the friendly dog he had been playing with earlier, we knew he had had enough and it was time to go. All in all, we were very proud of how well he behaved and are looking forward to taking him there again.

EDIT: Sorry, no pics from today. It was raining too hard to take any. Maybe next time.

We took Oscar on a hike in Marquam Nature Park today to look for a couple Geocaches. It was very wet and muddy, but Oscar didn't seem to mind one bit.

After a bit of a struggle (never completely trust a GPSr in the woods), we found the first cache.

The second one was much easier, which was a very good thing since we were all getting very tired and cranky by that point. At the second cache, Oscar discovered a large hollow log and had all sorts of fun exploring inside.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 191

Click here for the entry form.

One Hundred Cats and a Fish. Done!

Cookie? Where?

Oscar was getting a little lazy when it comes to listening so we've increased our use of training treats a bit. I think we started cutting back on them a little too soon and it was starting to show. He's now doing a fantastic job of listening when we're in the house. Outside, however, we're not having quite as much success. For example, if I let him off the leash and call him to me, he always comes, but, many times, it's only when he's damn good and ready, which isn't acceptable. Might be time to break out a bit of chicken.

I miss the snow.

If you recall, I dropped and broke my camera on our trip to Crater Lake National Park last July. Later that same afternoon, the battery in Mr Moo's camera died just as we reached the Watchman Fire Lookout. Great timing, eh? Since I really wanted a photo of us up there, I asked a complete stranger to take our photo with his camera and email a copy to me when he returned home. I gave him my email address and hoped for the best. Since I hadn't heard anything from him, I assumed he lost my email address or just totally forgot about the whole thing. Imagine my surprise when this showed up in my inbox this afternoon:

He remembered! He said he's had my card stuck on his fridge all this time to keep reminding him and he finally made himself take care of it today. Mr Moo thought I was crazy for even asking the guy, but I figured it was worth a try. More proof that the kindness of strangers isn't completely dead.

I am so owning my space today. I just ate a roast beast sandwich here at my desk in complete peace. Granted, I was being watched intently, but both cat and dog stayed in their beds and there was no whining. Look out, Cesar! I'm going to have my own show soon!

I have discovered the secret to getting a dog to come every time it's called without fail - bits of hot dog.

I took Oscar to a small grassy area near our house to practice. Once there, I let him have a whiff of the bag the hot dogs were in. Can we say "complete undivided attention"? I have never seen him so focused before. He was so interested in the treats I had a hard time getting him to wander off so I could call him back. Once he did, however, I didn't have to ask him twice to get him to come back to me. He ran like a bullet train every single time. It was truly an amazing sight. On our final try, I let him wander off quite a ways. I was actually getting a little worried because he was so far away, but I needn't have worried. I held up the little bag of hot dog bits and, before I could even shout, "Oscar! Come!", he was running towards me like a greyhound after a rabbit. Glorious.

Behold the power of hot dogs!

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 192

Click here for the entry form.

We took Oscar to the off leash dog park again today. Well, I should say attempted to take Oscar to the off leash dog park. It did not go well. He was growling and lashing out at all of the other dogs that came near him. He was being so aggressive we finally had to concede defeat and leave. Unlike last time, it was a weekend day and the weather wasn't too bad. Therefore, there were a lot of other dogs and all of them, except for one or two, were very large. It's possible it was just too much for him at this point in his training and his anxiety got the better of him. On top of that, we don't think he's feeling very well. Normally, he's awake and running around the house with us all day on the weekends. Today, he hasn't done much besides lie in his bed and look pathetic. We caught him eating a couple things while on our hike yesterday, but weren't able to get them out of his mouth in time. I know one of them was a bit of stick and we have no idea what the other thing was. It could be he has a tummy ache from that. We're not giving up on the dog park, however. I'll try taking him another day during the week when it's not so busy and he's feeling better.