Keeler: UFC fighter Rose Namajunas fighting to save Metro Denver’s largest dog park. “This space is really special to me”

WESTMINSTER — Her rock is 28 pounds of Red Bull on four legs — one part husky, one part lab, one part funny car. Mishka, 11, moves like a comet in the grass, blessed with a gorgeous blond mane that fades into cream from the eyes to the nose.

But you know what’s crazy? For a dog whose default mode is sprinting with reckless abandon, Rose Namajunas’ most cherished memory might be the time when Mishka lay perfectly still.

“Let’s just say I spent the night in my car, sleeping with her, and just her,” Namajunas, the Westminster-based UFC fighter recalled as we walked the lush, blustery Westminster Hills Open Space off-leash zone this past Friday. “Like a ‘What are we going to do’ kind of a thing, you know?”

Sunshine draws a crowd. Your best friends are the ones who stick around through the lowest of lows, when the skies are darkest, when the rain tastes like salty tears.

For Namajunas, the headliner for the UFC’s return to Denver on July 13, that low came eight years ago. Drugs and wrong turns left the flyweight contender in her car, on her knees, praying, head bobbing in fog, her heart rolling onto the floor.

“She was there and she was comforting me the whole time,” Namajunas said, giving Mishka a loving scratch behind a pair of golden ears. “She helped me through that. She kept me safe, you know?

“She’s me in a dog form, really. If there’s anybody that’s gonna try to mess with me, she’s definitely gonna do her best. She’s small, but she doesn’t mess around.”

Neither does Mom. Namajunas has been keeping herself busy preparing for two tussles in early July. She’ll top the UFC card at Ball Arena in a fortnight, looking to build off a victory over Amanda Ribas this past March. But every dog has its day, and for Namajunas’ pups, Mishka and 2-year-old Rosco, it’s July 8. That’s when Westminster’s city council is expected to vote on the fate of the Westminster Hills Open Space, including a proposal that would reduce its open-leash zone by more than 90%.

“This space is really special to me because I’m willing to do whatever it takes in order to improve it and keep it nice,” Namajunas said. “Some people don’t have capable (space) and they maybe ended up with a really high-energy dog. And this is a good way for them to exercise them. I know how much it means to so many other people. That’s why I’m willing to do what I’m doing for this place.”

At 32, Namajunas has fought in at least four countries, won two UFC strawweight titles and got nominated for a pair of ESPY awards. But she said none of it compared to the butterflies she felt earlier this year when addressing the city council, to publicly defend keeping the off-leash zone — the largest in metro Denver — at 420 acres.

“The first time I spoke (to them), it was comparable,” Rose laughed, waving a small stick, then flinging it into a clump of thick pasture for Mishka to chase.

“It was definitely nerve-wracking, for sure. The second time wasn’t so bad, because I had already done it.”

Namajunas has aligned with the Westy Dog Park Guardians, an advocacy group seeking to maintain the status quo. She’s trained at the open space for a decade now, pets sprinting at her side. Rosco learned to swim here. For all the times Mishka was there for her, Namajunas is hell-bent on being there for Mishka.

The city, meanwhile, has discussed shrinking the off-leash zone to 33 acres. Proponents of the latter cite concerns over parking, foot traffic, dog waste, wildlife, and the risks of encounters between random runners, bikers or hikers with unfamiliar, unleashed dogs.

On this Friday afternoon, Rose and I found ourselves with plenty of elbow room. Yet weekends have seen parking lots fill up and an overflow of cars extending into adjacent streets and neighborhoods.

As we stopped to sit on a bench, next to a tree Mishka used to love climbing in her younger days, a woman called out from across the creek.

“I just wanted to say thank you for being so vocal about the park,” she shouted.

“You’re welcome,” Namajunas replied.

Cards on the table: Like Rose, I’m a dog person, reared by a pet-loving dad and a pet-wary mom. Over about an hour of walking and talking, we must’ve been greeted, unprompted, by a half-dozen four-legged friends, loveable pups just checking us out, then bounding on their merry way. Most of them were sopping wet. All of them were grinning, thrilled and well-behaved. But as the father of a child frightened by jumpy dogs, I could also understand some of the city’s concerns.

Namajunas gets that part, too. She just wants a fair fight. When the Guardians filed an open records request recently, they found that an early draft of the report filed by an evaluator for Westminster was less focused on the impact of dogs than the version eventually released.

“They were like, ‘Hey, can we change (the report) to this?'” Namajunas said. “But (the city) didn’t have that recommendation, originally. And so the superintendent who’s been promoting this is the one that made that recommendation. So why are you spending (thousands) on this study of taxpayer money to act like it’s independent, and it’s not?”

Namajunas cracked that she’d be a farmer if she wasn’t a professional fighter. She’s especially well-read on soil and agronomy, having been bit by the gardening bug ages ago.

“And I would like to see (the city) not spray pesticides here because that’s what they say is part of their plan,” Rose continued. “And as much as it’s an EPA-approved thing, it’s kind of outdated and it shows to not be effective because you’re disturbing the soil even more.

“People assume that the dog owners don’t care about the environment. And I care just as much as anybody else.”

As if on cue, Mishka ran up to her mom, dropping a gnarled stick at Rose’s feet. The same stick. As Namajunas smiled and bent over to retrieve it, Mishka looked up, lovingly, staring with eyes that never leave. Eyes that never judge.

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