Lessons of Life: Don’t Build Sand Castles On Dog Beaches

This week’s lesson from life comes from Chicago where we are celebrating my mother’s 85th birthday and my daughter’s 7th birthday. They share the same day. I took the kids and our dog Molly to the Montrose Beach Dog Park on the Northside. It is the ultimate dog park where you can swim with your dog on a beautiful beach. It was then that the kids decided to make a sand castle . . .

Dogs gradually gathered to watch the construction, forming a half circle around the kids in curiosity. The Turley kids made an elaborate castle with an impressive moat (perhaps not quite as impressive as the one shown above). The sand in Chicago is perfect for castle making. Once it was complete and the kids called me over. It was then that the largest dog (likely named William Wallace) walked over and pee’ed on it — collapsing a supporting wall and filing the moat. All of the dogs then followed suit or walked nonchalantly away having destroyed the latest effort of humans to occupy part of their beach.

Lesson of the day? Don’t build sand castles on dog beaches. (This lesson was brought to you by the Turley Tourism board).