Socially Awkward

I took  D'Artagnan (D'Art for short, ignore the apostrophe for pronunciation), to the dog park a couple of times this week. The discovery: my dog is socially awkward. To make it worse, I realized that he reminds me of myself 15 years ago. Just to clarify, I did not exhibit control issues in quite the same way as my male dog (who is well on his way to marking the entire park as his) - but there may be some similarities in the desire to have control. What's more obvious, however, is interacting with peers. In my early teens I wasn't sure how to make friends, although I desperately wanted to. Just as D'Art pinpoints which dogs are having the most fun, and follows them around trying to figure out how to join in, I tagged along on the outskirts of groups of teens, waiting for them to eventually notice me and decide to include me. And, just like D'Art, I was always attracted to little kids, and wanted to play with them any chance I got. :)

Kind of pathetic... at least the shyness and awkwardness around my peers. I was thankful and blessed to have a couple of girls who decided they wanted me as a friend, and gradually pulled me out of my shell and into their circles. Hopefully D'Art gets welcomed by a few dogs with comparable friendliness.