Dog Days of August

I'm not talking about temperatures, but about the new dog park, Cosmo Park, that had its grand opening last Saturday night. Click on the picture above to get a larger image, and note the paw prints on the lights; this is just one example of the attention to detail in this park. They had about 6,000 people and 1,500 dogs show up for the opening, according to the AZ Republic:

They flocked to Gilbert's new dog park in every size, color and breed imaginable - and had a doggone good time.

From Chihuahuas to Great Danes, Cosmo Park's grand opening Saturday was packed with at least 1,500 dogs and 6,000 people, town spokesman Greg Svelund estimated.

More than two hours before the event's start, hundreds of dogs were playing in the park on the northeastern corner of Ray and Greenfield roads, Svelund said.

And by 6:30 p.m., the park's parking lot was packed, which sent people scurrying elsewhere to park their vehicles, he said.

"There was just an amazing amount of people," Svelund said. And dogs.

The Labrador retrievers packed the swimming area, the cattle and sheep dogs herded mutts in the off leash area and tiny posh pups perched safely on their owners' laps.

The Mister and I don't have a dog at the moment, but we stopped by to have a peek at the festivities, and it looked like folks (and dogs) were very excited. We took this picture from the porch of some friends who live in Agritopia right next to the park. The newspaper has a slideshow (I can't figure out how to link the slideshow, but you can get there by going to the newspaper's print edition of the Gilbert section) with some closeups of the dogs, mostly.

I've actually been waiting to post on this since Sunday; I know that the Republic doesn't update its Gilbert online newspages on Monday, but this didn't even make the cut on Tuesday. I suppose I'm being a little harsh; but in the online era where information is instant, this seems a bit tardy. In any case, if you have a dog, you'll definitely want to check this place out.