Due to my hypothyroidism, I don’t often have enough energy to attend an all day event or multiple events in a day. Sometimes I feel like a rock star, other days I struggle to work through the fatigue. I had planned on attending the AAWL & SPCA Walk to Save Animals on November 5th, and then meeting up with my girlfriends and their dogs for an evening movie. I literally prayed that I’d be feeling well enough to do both. Turns out, I was! And what a fantastic day it ended up being!
AAWL & SPCA Walk to Save Animals
My favorite pet event every year is the annual AAWL Walk to Save Animals. The event consists of a 5k and 2k walk (you can choose to participate in either one), and a ton of vendors you can visit. You can also get your pet’s photo taken with Santa, try out agility and have your animals blessed! It’s such an amazing event for a great cause.
This year was the 6th time I’ve attended, and it’s the first year I remember the weather being cool in the morning. The last few years it was way too hot, which is a serious bummer for November. It was warm in the sun, but the cool breeze from Tempe Town Lake was magnificent.
Matt and I took Khloee and Wynston to the walk as usual. I felt bad leaving McKenzie Rae at home, but we don’t know how she’ll do in such a crazy environment with hundreds of dogs. Khloee and Wyn are extremely easy and well behaved at events such as this one, so we had a great, stress-free time!
We participated in the 2k walk, caught up with some friends and gathered lots of free samples! We spent about two hours enjoying ourselves on the beautiful Saturday morning.
I will make note of a couple of unfortunate things I saw at the event – prong collars (which always make me ill), a man aggressively pulling his dog up by the leash to move him, and a woman getting angry at her excited pit bull. Sometimes I really struggle with pet events for these reasons. If people treat their pets like that in public at a PET event, who knows how they are treated at home. It breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.
Then…I took a nap!
Ride-In Movie at the Park
In the evening Wynston and I planned to meet up with friends for a local movie in the park affair called “Ride-In Movies at the Park.” This fun, free event happens around the valley at different parks. This one took place at Porter Park in Mesa. The movie being shown was Elf, which is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies! A great way to jump start the Christmas season.
We were treated to free kettle corn, and my girlfriends brought goodies along! Lisa generously baked delicious gingerbread cookies and Katie went through the trouble of bringing her camping stove so we could make hot chocolate. As soon as the sun went down, it got chilly, so the hot chocolate was a nice touch. I brought my pullover sweater and blanket. Wynston snuggled in my lap the whole time so we were both cozy and warm. Wyn was exhausted from our fun day.
I’m grateful that I had such a wonderful day with my dogs and friends. I’m especially grateful that I was feeling well enough to truly enjoy it all. There are several more pet events over the course of the next couple months. We do plan on attending some of them. But, in case you don’t remember, we have a wedding to attend in December. Oh wait, it’s MINE! Yay! Lots to get done but it’s all coming together.
Have you gone to any pet events recently?
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