Dogfest 2009

I took Waldo to the West Chester DogFest on Saturday. As mentioned in my previous post, I didn't take Gus because his scars had opened up on Friday, and I didn't want him to get an infection or anything. I was sad to leave him at home! He gave me a look like, "I know you're going to have fun without me."

Waldo enjoyed the 45-minute car ride down. The whole backseat of my Mazda for himself!


This is my first trip to the DogFest, and WOW! Was it ever BIG! The events here in our hometown usually have 10-20 vendors. The DogFest had over 100 vendors! Lots of rescue groups and pet hotels, foodables for the humans, and games for the kids. There were agility runs and frisbee competitions, and a main stage where there were human/dog competitions (but more about that in a minute).

One of our favorite booths was for the local Boston Terrier rescue. Norwood showed us that he participated in this booth at his Dogfest--so did we, Norwood!

There were lots of big friends like Waldo to meet. This was 9-month old Azul, who was the same size as Waldo already. She's going to be a big girl!

Waldo and I participated in the Biggest Dog competition. There were lots of big dogs! From L to R: a Newfoundland (didn't catch the name), a Mango Mastiff named Brewsky, a St. Bernard named Bill (awesome name!), a Great Dane named Shrek, a Greyhound (didn't catch the name), a second St. Bernard (didn't catch the name), an Alaskan Malamute named Knut (he wasn't picture friendly), and Waldo.


Waldo certainly wasn't the biggest dog there, but we had FLAIR. All the other dogs just walked across the stage. We walked to the middle and then did a model-like spin. :) In the end, Waldo got 2nd place! Not too bad! We got a bandanna, a squeaky toy, and a $5 gift certificate to a local pet store. What is fun is that the other Great Dane came in 1st! I said, "It's a great day for Great Danes!" Here's a picture of Shrek and Waldo:


By the end of our 2-hour stay, Waldo was HOT. Every booth we'd go to he'd find the shade and sit or lay down in it. I poured a couple of bottles of water on him, and he drank a whole bottle of water, but he still panted the whole way home! Mommee was a little worried that he had some heat sickness, but after 10 minutes of all the air-conditioners in the car blowing cold air on him, he calmed down. We're glad we went early when it first opened--there were some doggies getting there at 1:00, when it was the hottest part of the day. We felt sorry for those doggies!


When we got home, Waldo was nice and gave the squeaky toy he had won to Gus. Gus loves it! It is a NASCAR Kasey Kahne bone. Nick said, "Does that make it a Kahne-9 toy?" Get it? canine? :)