Dogs, the excuse to make nice.

Hey there everyone in bloglandia.

we just came home from the greyhound social in port washington. Twas a lovely evening. We had a nice little dinner at our favorite supper club, Newport Shores. The night concert and gathering were only a block away, right on the lake.

It was nice schmoozing with the fellow grey-lovers and there were also lots of night time boogie-get-down types enjoying their beers and other libations.

Devlin is such a rare type of greyhound, that he really steals the show every time we have a get together.

In other news, I had a good time with a complete stranger. there was an older woman in a wheel chair with oxygen and she was down at the concert with who I can only guess was her home-care nurse-type person. the person who I am guessing was the nurse or caretaker was busy off on the pier with her date. i just wanted to say hello and not have her sitting there all alone and lonesome.

Of course dogs are a great way to walk up to a complete stranger and start up a conversation.
So, I wandered over and asked her if she would like to meet him. Of course, Devy is pretty irresistible, so instead of spending the evening with the other grey owners, I spent it with "Debra", hanging out with Devlin, and watching Jane go down a great big stwisty slide over, and over, and over again.

Just when you think a nice evening couldn't get any better, a schoolmate of Abigail's showed up. (Caleb)

Caleb is s really great kid, and given half a chance we would gladly add him to the messer-bunch. He comes from a single-mom household and you can tell he is sort of shuffled around from relative to relative rather often. Apparently, he was the class bully in kindergarten. Unfortunately, his reputation as "trouble" seems to have spread, and he is not really invited to all the other kids' parties, on play dates, etc.

Personally, we think it is a bunch of bull, so instead, he has quickly become great friends with Abby. Of course it is sometime hard to understand (when you are 6) why your friend can be so 'naughty".
Abby was a little trepidatious about becoming friends with him at first, because he really could act up, but we just explained that he acts that way for attention and that no one really ever showed him how to act any other way. As a result, her kindness and patience have grown on Caleb....He's had dinner with us, hung out at our house, and even borrowed Abby's Sponge Bob PJ's after an evening of wackiness.

As the night wore on, more and more greyhound owners wandered over by Devlin, Debra, and I. What followed really warmed my heart and broke it a little bit. Debra was so taken with the dogs and the attention and human interaction you could see she was really choked up. She took a couple pictures with us and with the other doggies. She really started loving on devy, and she also got to meet Mallory and really seemed to enjoy seeing such a cute baby goo and gah back and forth with her. (Mallory seems to have mastered saying "What?!" this week.)

When I say it made me a little sad, I guess it is because I just wanted to stay there and talk to her a bit longer. It may seem silly, but is was nice to just connect with another person...all she really needed was the same thing we all want, a little lub and some nice company to talk to.

It was getting late, the baby needed her bed, and it was time to head home. Caleb was leaving with some realtive or neighbor (not sure who she was, exactly) and the girls had been playing on the jungle gym for about 2 hours.

I said goodbye to Debra and helped her put on her sweater before we left. It was getting chilly by the lakfront, and I just wanted to give her a little hug before we parted ways.

Well, that's the news in Lake Wobegon, where all the children are happy.

Goodnight Debra, it was nice to meet you.