Molly, Emma, Darla and I visited a “secret dog park” this morning.

What’s a secret dog park? Glad you asked…

A secret dog park is a normal park where a group of dog lovers gather to let their dogs run, play and socialize off-lead. The humans “encircle” the dogs to ensure nobody (or, no buddy) runs off or plays too rough. It’s kinda like throwing all the kids in the basement to let them play.

Anyway, one of Darla’s co-workers told us about this one, and we found several new canine friends there waiting for us.

Molly and Emma thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and played their hearts out. I’m still just amazed at how well Molly gets around. If you look close, you can tell her alignment isn’t quite textbook, but she doesn’t know that, and she plays and runs with all the abandon an 85 pound puppy can muster. It’s a wonderful sight to see her moving so well, realizing that had we not run the surgical gauntlet last year, she’d likely be lame by now. Truly, a miracle from God.

Among the crowd were two beautiful Leonberger dogs. Gorgeous, big lugs, quite reminiscent of the Berner in build, but bigger, and with a very friendly disposition. Wonderful dogs they were, and the first two I’d met. From what Darla tells me, there are only a couple thousand of them in the US, so they are even more rare than Berners.

The morning was crisp and brisk — just the way a winter’s day should begin — and the dogs loved running about for the better part of an hour. No regard to size or breed, they ran and played, and enjoyed just being dogs.

Why can’t we all just be dogs?