Results tagged “maureen” from South Bay Pets

The other day I wrote a post about John Ralph, a longtime visitor to the San Pedro dog park who died a couple of weeks ago. John and his dog, Maureen, would show up most afternoons and John would sit on the bench while Maureen went nuts in that delightful way happy dogs do.

I got a letter from one of John's friends, which I attached to the original article. But it was so sweet and well written that I'm posting it here so more people can see it. The person who wrote it is named Patricia Henricks.

Thank you for your article about John and Maureen. John and I were good friends.

We met one day at the dog park on his 60th birthday, a day when I was thrilled to be alive, enjoying the simple pleasures o the park and my new dog, Beau.

John came in and announced that today was his 60th birthday and that's it, life is over at 60. I told him he was wrong, I was 62 and had just completed 1 year and 9 months of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and my life wasn't over at 60, I was starting a new day with Beau and a gratitude and joy in my heart for a blue sky, a cool breeze, a wonderful park to visit.

That day was the beginning of a long friendship talking about life, the beauty of simplicity, unconditional love of a dog, and how much we could learn from them. John was a really good man who struggled with life's complexities and yearned for goodness and God.

He found a lot of comfort and answers at the park with people and dogs that we all love. Watching the dogs interact, learning a lot from them and their capacity to freely express joy, playfulness, even anger and annoyance one day and completely forget it the next day. John loved our dog park and the dogs and people he met there.

Rest in peace my dear friend, and know that Maureen is well cared for a loved by a sister who loves them both.

When you take your pooch to the dog park, you tend to pay more attention to the other dogs than you do the people. It's not uncommon to know the name of someone's pet and not theirs. I'm sure more than a few people around town know me as "Rocket's Owner."

But when you're watching your dogs sniff and play and sometimes fight with each other, you pick up casual friendships with the folks there. You may have nothing else in common, but you share a love of dogs and you're a dedicated enough owner to go to the park in the first place.

So I probably know more about Maureen than I do her owner. She is about a year old now, is a brindle-colored bundle of energy. She's probably part pit bull, but I wouldn't bet my life on it. She likes to play more than any dog I've ever seen. Upon entering the park, she makes a straight line for the nearest dog and tackles it. Or she finds a toy to steal and runs around in circles taunting the other canines. She's even a bigger toy stealer than my dog.

The story around the San Pedro dog park is that her owner named her Maureen because that was his sister's name and he wanted to ensure that somebody took care of the dog if something ever happened to him.

It's a funny story and if it's true, it turned out to be prophetic. Last week I learned that Maureen's owner died.

Finally some new wood chips have been scattered at the San Pedro dog park!

While I'm not a big fan of wood chips -- I prefer grass -- the new ones are nice and have cut down on the toxic dust clouds that swirl around every time dogs run by.

I took Rocket there yesterday. There were tens of thoussands of new chips to chose from, but he and his friend Maureen were having a tug of war over one particular piece. They both wanted it, but neither one wanted to share.

And yes, Maureen is a dog. I think she's 9 months old and is probably the most playful puppy I've ever come across.