While out in Rapid City, SD, I discovered they had a few off-leash dog parks...and I visited Braeburn Park along Rapid Creek with a daily vengeance. Suffice it to say my (then) 2 pups demanded nothing less. Interestingly, the old open field area, now mowed, was once a little community with houses and a small motel. What happened? The great Rapid City flood of June 9-10, 1972, where 238 died in the raging floodwaters. A monstrous thunderstorm complex sat virtually motionless for a number of hours over the edge of the Black Hills; 15 inches of rain fell in just 6 hours around Nemo...and the ensuing wall of water rushing downhill was nothing less than catastrophic.
(One of many post-flood scenes in Rapid City)
(Rapid Creek today, at Braeburn Park)Instead of rebuilding the area, they enacted codes to prevent residential re-development in flood prone areas...hence the formation of places like Braeburn Dog Park....even today there are some stone steps and pieces of concrete foundations there serving as a reminder of that fateful day...and so, with it now being a leash-free dog park, I thought I'd honor some of the 4-legged 'regulars' who helped make that place what it is today,and made any given day a whole lot brighter...you don't have to know them to appreciate their Souls...
There is something to be said for letting dogs run free together...they develop an amazing social order and behavior, and the sense of 'community' and interrelatedness at that park was profound. If you got there early enough in the morning (i.e. slightly before sunrise, you might be lucky enough to share the park with some Bighorn rams or Mule Deer...that is, until the pups saw them, too. Ducks swimming in the creek's eddies, osprey and eagles flying up and down the creek looking for an easy trout...wildflowers, in season...just a magical peaceful place, the kind we could all use in this rat-race of a life many of us live in. So here's my toast to our 4-legged companions, many of whom we have adopted, and three cheers for the Tao they give us in abundance!
3 comments:
Love the dogs! Gosh, Mercy has the prettiest, most-beseeching eyes too.
Didn't know about the Rapid City Flood --- sounds even more devastating than the Big Thompson Canyon Flood (Loveland CO) in '76 (??) --- in any case, far more lives lost.
It's nice though that the flood-ravaged areas in Rapid City have "re-birth" and new life in the form of the dog parks; with some suitable, sobering "memorials" in the leftover stone and concrete slabs.
Thanks for sharing the great pics!
Suzy :)
absolutely precious pics, bob. To look into an animals eyes is to see peace, happiness, joy and love.
We humans need to learn from these precious creatures the simple joy of being together, having a good time.
You are 'spot on', Lori...eyes are the window to the Soul, human or otherwise...you must see it in your cats, as well...all these pups were given total love...but many are not. Humans or animals, we have a lot to learn....A-HO!
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