Park heaven

Hyde Park is Paco’s idea of heaven, I think. We took him there yesterday – M was going riding with his unicycling buddies, and we thought Paco might enjoy a quiet time sitting in the sunshine. Little did we know…

I don’t have any pictures because I was too busy being dragged around the park by a tiny dog. I think it was all the smells – of dropped food, other dogs, lots of people, flocks of ducks and water birds – that meant that Paco found the whole place completely intriguing and utterly wonderful. He just wanted to look everywhere, sniff everything, and he even enjoyed running around from place to place. (I was worn out by the end of the afternoon.) We’ve taken him to a different park closer to home but he didn’t seem to particularly enjoy it. I think Hyde Park is The Park from now on.

We were wondering how Paco would react to meeting a whole group of strange people. I think he was the life of the party – he licked everyone and wanted to either play or cuddle, when he wasn’t distracted by everything else going on around him. He isn’t particularly worried by unicycles, and he thinks poi are chew toys.

Paco even enjoyed meeting other dogs, although he was a bit cautious and submissive at times (probably just as well). Every other person wanted to stop and say hello to the little dog, which was a new experience for me.

And the most amazing bit? Paco didn’t bark once! He doesn’t bark around the house either, normally. I’ve only heard him bark twice – the night we tried to lock him in the laundry room, and he also barked at his reflection in his mirror the first time he saw it. Paco’s bark is quite surprisingly deep for such a little dog. He does wuff in his sleep from time to time. I wonder what he dreams of.

At the moment, he’s fast asleep on my lap, covered by a bit of my sarong. (It’s a bit cool this morning and he was shivering a bit until I covered him.)

Postscript: Paco takes up a lot of my time at the moment – a good hour in the morning before work, and much of the evening after work. I’m thinking that I am going to need to reorganise my routine a bit so that I regain a bit more time for reading and writing.