There is a gathering of people and their doodles this Saturday, June 23, 2018, at the PEI Humane Society’s dog park. It’s both a fundraiser for the Humane Society and a social gathering for people and dogs.

For the uninitiated, doodles are crossbred poodles. Labradoodles. Goldendoodles. And so forth.

As we’ve been asked, of Ethan (not a doodle), “oh, is he a doodle?” roughly a billion times since he came into our lives, we have some familiarity with the dogs and their obsessive passionate humans.

While simply a standard poodle, Ethan has some apricot in his ears, and that prompts doodle-afficianados to flights of fancy. Fortunately, Ethan’s role in Oliver’s life is, in part, to be an entrée to conversation, so this is not a bad thing.

I know about the Romp because I phoned the Humane Society last week to inquire whether their dog park, long closed for renovations, was due to open any time soon. They told me that all that was holding things up was some fencing, and that the fence supplier had been given the Doodle Romp as an immovable deadline.

I received assurances that, should we bring Ethan (not a doodle) to the Doodle Romp, we would not be turned away.

Were Oliver not so averse to committing acts of fraud, I’d try to pull off a “yes he is!”, but we’ll have to play it straight.