The Dog Park Regulars

I started going to the dog park every morning when I adopted Pepper, a nervous terrier mix. I expected to make dog friends. I didn't expect to make people friends.

There's a regular group: a retired pilot with a husky, a young couple with a pair of dachshunds, a high school teacher with a three-legged lab named Tripod, and an architect who has a very elegant poodle and a very loud laugh. We know each other's dogs' names much better than each other's.

We've celebrated dog birthdays with dog-friendly cupcakes, planned a group camping trip and covered for each other when someone's dog rolled in something terrible.

Pepper isn't nervous anymore. She runs straight to the gate every morning, wagging. Honestly, so do I.