The World According To Pepper

One of my favorite things of being a puppy is, that I’m experiencing a lot of things for the very first time, like for example: labor day.

Mama told me what that labor day thingy is, but all I heard was: Papa has a day off from work!

YAY! 3 days of fun with the whole family. I love having my Mama and Papa around me, more than anything.

We spend a fantastic dog friendly long labor day weekend all together. First I got to go to my favorite dog park in San Jose, I got lots of cuddles and finally on the actual labor day we went to Santa Cruz. I haven’t been here before so I was very excited when Mama told me, that we’re going to see some Surfers.

I have to say: I LOVE LOVE LOVE Santa Cruz!

We first spend a little time at Mitchell Cove Beach where dogs are allowed to run off-leash in the morning and in the afternoons. Although it wasn’t off-leash time yet I had a lot of fun. I’m still not a fan of the ocean (those waves are way too scary if you ask me) but I love digging in the sand. I was digging and digging and digging… until I was all sandy. Tee-hee.

Afterwards we took a very, very long walk to the light house. We met tons of other lovely dogs on our walk and I had to greet them all. Each and everyone of them. Naturally it took as a while until we arrived at the light house. There I needed to spend some time in the shade, because it was really hot and my black puppy coat wasn’t exactly helping me cool down.

But after a while I wanted to see those Surfers Mama was talking about. And I got to see some. Wow, surfing looks fun. I’d totally try that too, if it wasn’t a thing where you have to get close to those nasty waves. Well, maybe when I’m older? We’ll see.

After watching some of the surfers we had to go all the way back to the car. I barely made it. I was so tired and exhausted from digging, walking, greeting other dogs and being pet by loads of friendly people. But Papa refused to carry me back to the car, so I had to walk all by myself.

Of course I slept all the way back home in the car and when we arrived, I was my jumpy happy self again. Tee-hee.

Here are some photos from the trip to Santa Cruz:

Well, that was fun!
Mama and Papa had tickets for a play in Santa Cruz, the 3 musketeers or so, and because I’m not into theater at all, I spend the evening at my friends house. Jesse and Leyah welcomed me to their place and we had a fantastic evening. They have tons of toys and I was allowed to play with almost all of them. Wohoo!
I had so much fun, that I wasn’t even realizing that Mama and Papa weren’t there. I wasn’t crying or barking at all. But when they came back from their date night, I was really happy to see them again. It was my first time away from Mama and Papa after all.
But because I was playing soooo much with Jesse, Leyah and their mum the whole evening, I didn’t get much sleep. I could have missed something, am I right?! So no time for a nap.
Naturally I was pooped afterwards. It was so exciting, that I slept until 8am this morning. Mama and Papa said, that we’re going to have a lazy Sunday to relax a little, but I hope they’ll go to meet my “gassi” friends in the evening. But until then, I’ll just hang out on the balcony…

My friends Jesse and Leyah and their Mum took me and my Mama to Roy M Butcher Dog Park in San Jose last Thursday. This was the first time ever, that I was at a dog park and I thought that it might be a good idea, to make a list of all the parks and places I got to, so I’ll always remember if I liked a place or not.

So, Roy M Butcher Dog Park in San Jose:
The park is located at 3950 Camden Ave in San Jose, CA 95109. I liked the park a lot. It has an enclosure for small dogs (under 40lbs) and one for large dogs (over 40lbs). There are benches for the humans to sit and not get in the way while we’re playing.
There’s also an ample supply of poop bags (just in case one of us has to do some business and their parents forgot to bring their own).
The park has a large playing area in each enclosure that’s with artificial grass so it’s clean and still fund to play on.
There’s also sand and tan bark and lots of trees.
The park also offers a water fountain and drinking bowls which is very important for me, because I get sooooo thirsty when playing a lot.
I went to the small dogs section (I’m still a Puppy and sometimes a bit overwhelmed by huge dogs) and had a lot of fun. I wasn’t the biggest one here which was good. I made a lot of new friends and had a blast, even though there was one Pit Bull I didn’t like. He didn’t stop playing even though I told him to. But Mama took me away and we waited a little while until the Pit Bull’s owner took him to the larger dog section. I think that was a better fit for him and everyone else at the small dog section could play nicely without him being around.
After we’ve stayed 2h I was sooooo exhausted that I fell a sleep on our way back home in the car.

This park is really really nice and I’ll give it 4 1/2 out of 5 paws. And I’d like to come back to get a better impression but it’s quite a drive for us, so we won’t go here too often I guess.