Sunday's best

Shelby loves Sundays. After an early morning walk it's normally back to bed for a quick nap with "Sunday Morning" as background noise. Then comes the best hour of the day for what we call "Dog Fight Club Park", an unofficial weekly gathering of Riverside dogs in all shapes and sizes and their owners in Swan Pond. Swan Pond isn't a pond anymore but serves as a natural overflow during very rainy periods for the Des Plaines River where it makes a 90 degree bend right near the swinging bridge. Most weeks it's a huge, dry open space surrounded by trees. On snowy Sunday mornings it's shared space with young sledders who find the gentle slope of the embankments a good proving ground for more ambitious efforts when they grow up. But for about sixty minutes each Sunday morning the area is teeming with dogs, released from leashes, running in every direction and proving over and over again that no one breed has the corner on "ADD Dogitis". Shelby's small in comparison with many of the contestants but shows heart most of the time. She must be paying attention when football is on TV since she's got the "quarterback slide" down perfectly. Whenever she's about to be hammered by a defensive end-sized competitor, she dives to the ground and presents her submissive side. Other dogs must watch the games as well since there's never been a flag for a late hit.