The People You Meet at the Dog Park

In November 2009, a week before Thanksgiving, Noah came to us via the Golden Retriever Rescue of Palm Beach County.  He was nine months old, a stunning  reddish gold beauty who was pitifully thin and still groggy from his  trip to the vet’s. He immediately bonded with Rob. His owner had Noah’s parents and had intended to use him as a stud. He’d been crated most of his life and really hadn’t been socialized at all. So Rob and I began taking him to our dog park.

Our dog park is an idiosyncratic place. For the most part, the people who come there do so because they love their dogs, because their dogs insist on visiting the park at a  particular time each day, because their dogs need to run free. In the five years since we’ve been going to the park, a group of us who come in the afternoons have become friends.

First, there was Colleen, who owned three dogs, often took care of other people’s dogs, and who eventually moved on to Michigan. Colleen often took care of Cody, an Alaskan husky who belongs to Karin, a Virgo who hails originally from upstate New York. Karin has lived here for 13 years, has a daughter several years younger than Megan and a son Megan’s age. Karin is married to Warren, who has a marvelous gift for storytelling and worked for years in the equine business in Saratoga, New York, where horses are the main business.

A second Carin, who owns two labradoodles, is a retired hospice nurse who volunteers regularly at the performing arts center in West Palm Beach.

Cassie owns two border collies – Willow and Kilt – and has worked in the horse business for nearly 30 years. For the last six years, she has worked for bestselling novelist Tami Hoag. Cassie has traveled all over the world in her work with horses and while she worked for Hoag has moved from the northeast  to Malibu and then to our area.

Then there is Estes, who hails from Spain and is married to a Brazilian, Marcio. They own Red the hound who is terrified of thunder, and both teach music at local schools. Last fall, Estes asked if Megan would attend the Hispanic Arts Festival at a local college that she and her husband had organized.

“But she’s not Hispanic,” I said.

Estes shrugged. “You were born in Venezuela, so that makes her of Venezuelan descent.”

 I asked Megan is she would like to participate, she said sure, so on a recent Saturday evening we headed over to Palm Beach Atlantic College.

Marcio introduced Megan, who spoke about her art. The dolphin in the above pic is the one she used, a one-panel.  And then we discovered that Estes and Marcio aren’t just music teachers.  They are performance pianists who have played all over the world.

As duo pianists, their combined music is powerful, sweeping, a mosaic of classical and contemporary pieces that reflect their Hispanic and Brazilian roots. We sat there enthralled.

We also discovered they are the piano-duo in residence of the college and over their decade of performances, have commissioned more than 20 original works by renowned composers from South America and Europe.

Afterward, we gathered in the lobby for snacks and were talking about how blown away we were by Estes and Marcio’s performances. Karin, the retired hospice nurse, commented that she sees a lot of pianists at the performing arts center where she volunteers. “And I can tell you that Estes and Marcio are better than anyone I’ve seen at the center.”

The other Karin remarked,   “Hey, you just never know about the people you meet at the dog park…”

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In honor of the Hispanic festival, Megan named the dolphin pictured above “Consuelo.”