May 19, 2003
Dusty in the woods
8:30 p.m.
Dusty and I celebrated Victoria Day with a picnic in High Park. We spent the afternoon there, enjoying the sunshine, walking and chewing/reading underneath a shade tree (I'll leave you to sort out who was doing what
It was SO pretty out today, just amazing. Dusty loved every minute of it. We started out with Dog Hill and some of the trails and worked our way back towards the goose pond. We stopped under some weeping willows beside a creek for our picnic and watched little kids running around in the grass.
Then we walked over to the goose pond so Dusty could check out the large birds. She was engrossed: "Look! Giant pidgeons! And they float!"
Seems like every time we go to High Park, there's a drama. Today, as we were walking around looking at geese, we came upon a man desperately trying to hold onto a screaming child. She was half-dressed and squirming out of his grasp. The man's young son looked on.
I asked him what was going on and he explained that he and his son were walking past and saw the girl (she was about 5 years) removing her clothes and preparing to jump in the pond. He had grabbed her in the nick of time.
The child didn't speak English and she was clearly autistic. We couldn't get her clothes back on, so I pulled out a beach towel and wrapped her in it. I tried to calm her down, but boy was she strong! As she grew more hysterical, it took two men to keep her from jumping in that pond.
Security was call, then the police arrived. By this time, a good sized group of concerned parents had gathered and some of them dashed into the park to find Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese speakers. No-one could reach the child. Finally, the police found her mother. The child was indeed autistic and even her mother had to work hard to calm her.
But the drama was over. I got my beach towel back and we continued to walk around the park. We stopped a few times for puppy-nap breaks (though she didn't sleep much - the activity in the park was far too interesting).
When we got home afterward, she slept for two hours straight. We went for a walk and played in our neighbourhood park and now she's sound asleep again. I think I'll have a tired puppy for a few hours at least!
Enjoying a picnic for Victoria Day