I just lost my entire post waxing poetically about endings and beginnings, which then transitioned into suggesting that irresponsible dog owners make a resolution to step up and keep their dogs from being a danger and/or a nuisance to others in public places, such as parks and campgrounds. This has been an ongoing problem while camping, in spite of all the campground rules about not leaving dogs unattended, or no barking dogs and on and on, but the incident that spurred the post involved my son and his dog being attacked in a park. They are lucky. The dog is ok, and Ryan’s bite is not too bad. And seriously, I DO like dogs. I just like them to be well-behaved and cared for.

I don’t want to write the entire post again, as I want to move on from that negative focus. But please, pet owners: keep your dogs from rushing out at people barking and worse, don’t leave your dogs left unattended all day, or put them outside all night at the campground if they continuously bark. I can’t sleep, but you are either not there, inside your air conditioned  trailer with the tv blaring, or maybe, but this is hard to believe. you just don’t care. Not everyone is as thrilled with your little naughty Fluffy as you are.

We spent park of the day yesterday alligator watching at Edward Medard Park , another county park near where we are camped in Hillsbourough County. When we entered the park, I asked the attendent  if paddleboarding was allowed at the lake. The attendant laughed, told me no  problem, but added that he would not do it. Over the several years he has worked there, he has only seen two paddleboarders on the lake,. Evidently, they have alligators. I also asked a kid who was fishing off the dock the same question. His eyes got wide and round, and he shook his head slowly, like he could not believe I would even ask such a question. The kid is a local, and he had a nice striped bass on his stringer, along with a catfish. He said a big alligator nosed at their boat once and scared the @&$@ out of him.

Evidently the park has alligators. Many alligators. And some big alligators. The park has had to kill two large alligators recently that became dangerous as a result of being fed by tourists and fishermen. We did see three alligators – one was perhaps a 10 footer, but I was not able to get a photo of any. Suffice it to view some pretty pictures of the park.