I had an opportunity to work from home starting on June 1 which allowed me to get in some early morning walks every day at Lakeside Park before my work days began.
I used to walk in the evenings when the Park is pretty busy so this was a very nice change of pace… peaceful and serene with lots of water fowl around, including beautiful sunrises.
On July 4th I found a stray dog which wouldn’t let me get near him. I suspect he might have taken off after being scared by fireworks which a lot of people were firing off in the evenings leading up to the 4th of July. After following him for a while I tried the Humane Society, but no answer. So I called the Fondy Police Dept non-emergency line. They told me I needed to catch him before the Humane Society would even send anyone out and their police officer would come out there, but couldn’t give any assistance with capturing it.
Well after following the dog from near DeNevue Creek all the way past the baseball diamond parking lot, the locomotive, the amusements, past the Pavillion, and to the light house is when the police officer arrived and also a friend of mine was there with his dog trying to help catch him. We cornered him behind the light house when I heard a woman on the other side by the yacht club calling for him as he decided to jump in the water to avoid us. He ended up swimming straight out. Mind you this was an older dog which potentially was out all night with no food, but perhaps maybe some water. The officer called to see if the Sheriff’s boat was docked in the harbor and luckily it was, and shortly later three Sheriff Deputies were out on it and onto the lake.
The dog swam out at least a mile near some fishermen in boats who we couldn’t believe wouldn’t attempt to assist and we’re pretty certain there was no way they could have not seen him, including a couple of boats took off after he got close to them.
The Sheriff brought a leash since they were told he had on a collar with tags. They failed on the first attempt, but not on the second try. We were so relieved and I waited until I could see him come back into the harbor. The Police/Sheriff posted about it on local KFIZ’s website and on FB, and later I saw a friend share the post and one of their friends said the owner was aware he was at the Humane Society now. Another relief!
My days of walking at the park in the early mornings ended when I started a new office-based job on September 26th, but they would have ended soon anyway since the sun wasn’t coming up until close to 7 a.m. at that time and the days were getting much shorter for daylight.
Oh and one other cool thing is that I would often see my friend Neil in the mornings, who took care of the amusement rides for Whealon and on his last day before retirement he met me out there to give me a ride on the train and even offered to let me drive it. How special was that, since I rode this train so many times as a kid. I, however, forgot to scream when we went through the tunnel.
I hope you enjoy some of the many photos I took during this time...
