The loud argumentative voices were just around the corner. Trees and shrubs on either side of the path blocked my view of who it was that was having the argument, but from the sound and tone ringing out in the otherwise peaceful environment of the park, it was two women having quite the disagreement.
As I made my way around the bend I could see one of the women involved in the rather heated discussion, and she was holding a dog leash that was taut, and in a few more steps I saw the reason the rope was so as her dog, a mid-sized retriever, was jumping excitedly towards another two dogs, one that was on a leash that was similarly taut, and one that was unleashed.
Both of those dogs appeared to belong to a second woman, who was holding the leash of the second dog I had seen, a small Australian Shepherd, with her left hand and in her right she held one of those flexible plastic ball flinging sticks that allows people to toss tennis balls twenty yards or so without much effort.
As I closed the gap between myself and the two quarrelling women I began to make out what was being shouted by both of the shouters.
The woman with the ball flinging stick was repeatedly yelling at the woman with the mid-sized retriever to leave her alone, to mind her own business and that she wasn't harming anyone.
The woman with the mid-sized retriever was yelling right back at her that the park had signs posted everywhere that stated all dogs must be leashed at all times while in the park, and that ball flinging stick lady should take her dogs down to a park a few miles down the road that allowed dogs off leash if she wanted to play fetch with them.
Ball flinging stick lady seemed to increase the aggressiveness with which she repeatedly shouted that what she did in the park with her dogs was her business, and that the other woman should take her dog to another park if she didn't like it.
At this point I began to slow down my strident pace a little, because one, I didn't know if I should sidestep the arguing women by darting around them through a clearing that I was approaching on my left and two, I was caught up in the action of the argument and had half a mind to pull out my phone and start filming.
Then the mid-sized retriever lady yelled something that pretty much won the argument for her, at least to me she did.
She yelled, "Stop telling me it isn't my business that you have your dog off leash and are playing fetch in this park. It is my business. There is a small lake right over there and a lot of migrating birds are in this park. The reason those signs stating that all dogs must be leashed in the park is because unleashed dogs have attacked and killed quite a few of those birds - if people don't keep their dogs leashed and more birds get killed, they'll ban dogs from the park altogether and I like to walk my dog in this park! If you want me to call an animal control officer to explain that to you and write you a ticket, I'll do that now (the mid-sized retriever lady was pulling out her phone with her left hand as she yelled that) or you could just be a responsible adult dog owner and take your dogs down to the park that allows them off leash - there's no lake or birds there!"
The ball flinging stick lady then caught sight of me coming up the path and looked at the other woman with an expression of pained embarrassment. The mid-sized retriever lady turned and looked at me approaching as well. Both of the women took steps off the path as I grew closer, and ball flinging stick lady called her other dog, the one off leash, to come to her.
I walked between them with as casual and disinterested an air as I could muster. I weighed whether or not I should pipe up with "She's right, you need to take those dogs to the off leash park to play fetch." as I passed, but being as how ball flinging stick lady was putting her unleashed dog back on the leash, it clearly would have been unnecessary for me to do so.
It was another thirty or so steps before I was once again beyond hearing if anything more was said between the two women, no matter how hard I strained my ears.
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