What An Exciting Evening!

Wow! Last night Spark had a fun evening, full of fun, new experiences.  First of all we had to stop at Wal-Mart and then Petco to get a collar for him.
He did really well at Wal-Mart, again! This time though it was a little harder for him, because we had to stop in the pet section to look for a collar for him (they didn't have what I wanted) and there were puppy toys on the bottom shelf at the perfect place for Spark to get them. He reached for the toys but when I told him to 'leave it' he did. Yeah!!! He just sat there and waited until I was done looking.
After that we headed for the grocery section ( we had forgotten until yesterday evening that we were supposed to bring snacks to my brothers' game otherwise I probably would've waited to take him to the grocery section until he'd had more experience in stores) I was a little worried about how he would do. He did really well and 'heeled' and 'left it' and 'minded his business' when he was told to. And he didn't have an accident, which was good because we were at the back of the store and it takes awhile to get across the store and outside. He was really great; I hope he stays this well behaved in public. Plus he did all of these things with a flat collar!
He didn't do quite so well at Petco but that is because he was getting tired and there are a lot of distracting new things at a pet store. 
Then we were off to the ball field to watch J play. Spark and I missed part of it because KSDS PIT McLaren and his puppy raiser N came and so we let the dogs play together and wear each other out. It was fun watching them play; I didn't get any pictures though because for one thing I forgot and they would have been pretty blurry anyway. The dogs played for about 30 minutes, then McLaren and N headed home and Spark and I went back to watch J's game; we got back in time to see him hit a double! Well I saw it but Spark was exhausted from playing with his buddy, so he took a nap under the bleachers.

It sure wears a dog out playing with his buddy!

 After his game was over we headed to the other boy's ballgame. We got there a few minutes after it had started. Spark and I were surrounded by little kids as soon as we stopped at the field where Q and S were playing. Spark loved it and behaved really well, he got loved on for about 20 minutes.
We went and sat on the bleacher next to Mom; we had been sitting and watching for about 5-10 minutes when a kid from the other team slid towards home and then got tagged out. The weird thing was he didn't get back up, he was just laying there...then he started moaning and howling and gripping his leg. You knew something was wrong because 11-12 year old boys NEVER cry in front of there friends if they can help it. It took a while for the coaches to figure out something was wrong, but after they realized they rushed over to him.
He couldn't/wouldn't move his leg. A paramedic who was in uniform and watching another game came over and looked at him. One of the parents called an ambulance and within 10 minutes or less it arrived. It had to drive on the sidewalk in the complex. We had never had this happen before. Spark watched and was curious, but he didn't try to chase it.

Spark watching the ambulance drive up.

Everyone surrounding the injured kid.

 It took them awhile to get the kid on the stretcher and then load that on to the ambulance. About 10 minutes later they backed out of the complex, I told Spark to watch and he did. He is so observant...maybe he'll be a guide dog?!
We figured out after the game from our teams coach that the kid had broken his ankle when he slid, because he had slid the wrong way and turned his leg, etc. The teams other coach said that he had glanced at his injury and that the kids pants were not lying flat by his ankle and it was kind of S shaped. Poor kid.
So now Spark has been around an ambulance. It was a really exciting evening last night.