The day of the walk-a-thon I was a bit nervous.
Alright to be honest I was REALLY nervous. Nervous to the point of shaking.
I had no idea what to expect as this was our first REAL dog event besides a dog show.
I didn’t know if Leroy was going to be all crazy and pull one of his “Leroy” moments and trip me, or knock me down, or fling slobber on my face. I didn’t know how he would react to all the dogs being around him.
I just didn’t know. It was uncharted waters for both of us.
I had a plan and making it work was key to us being able to sucessfully complete the 1 mile walk without any injuries to me anyone.
As the walk started I put my plan into effect.
Sometimes it’s safer to NOT be the leader of the pack. At least for me and Leroy.
We were going to stay towards the back of the pack. I didn’t want to be in the middle of all the people and dogs, that was just an accident waiting to happen. This way if I was in the back, no one would see me if I tripped and fell.
(You can’t see us in this picture. We are way behind all these folks and pups)
Leroy started off being way more interested in all the smells on the ground than focusing on completing the walk in a timely manner. He was not taking time to read the “fun facts” that were posted along the way.
His horns were not staying on because I forgot the clip that I wanted to use to clip it to his fur, so I wore them.
He didn’t want anything to do with his cape so Bobby wore it.
He peed on his devil tail. I don’t how, but he did and it wasn’t pretty.
Gracie was actually a ghost. Yes, I said a ghost. She wanted to be a simple little ghost with a white sheet and holes cut out of the eyes. It was so cute.
However, it was a little windy for this little ghost and after about 1/4 of the mile she lost the sheet. Not seriously lost it, she was just fed up with not being able to see, and I was getting tired of stopping and fixing the eye holes so we just removed the sheet from the equation.
She magically became a devil, right in front of my eyes.
After our first time around the track Leroy began to slow down and the water bowls that he had past on the first time around were a welcome site.
He stopped at each and every one and made sure to leave enough slobber in each bowl for the next thirsty walker.
At one point in time he even tried to climb in one of the bowls.
I have no idea why, I guess he just thought he could make himself fit.
It was a pretty funny sight.
By our last stretch Leroy was running out of speed and so was I. The kids however, could of gone another 20 miles.
After the one mile walk there was more fun to be had with games and contests.
There was a contest for the biggest dog and I’ll give you one guess who won.
LEROY!!!
We almost didn’t win because there was also a Great Dane there and they were very close in size. The Great Dane was no where to be found when they were announcing the winners, so Mr Leroy won! YAY!!!!
The whole day was just wonderful and we had a blast.
The DogFest raised over $5,000 for Canine Companions for Independence, without any major corporate backers. This was a first year event for them so I think that is a great accomplishment!
Congratulations to all the volunteers, including my friend Bonnie Sweebe from Welcome Pup.com who made this event such a BIG success!
