World of Pets Expo

This past weekend was pretty fun for me. Friday night was spent cleaning out the basement. That was NOT fun and it’s nowhere near complete. I’ll explain the basement thing some other time.

On Saturday morning, Amy and the grandkids came for a visit. I didn’t have time for pictures as I was busy helping Amy remove some of our basement treasures.

Then I had to leave for the World of Pets Expo that was held at the Timonium Fairgrounds. The fine folks at Annie’s Pooch Pops pay for American Brittany Rescue to have some exhibition space. Those of us who volunteer for ABR and have Brittanys of our own take our dogs to the expo so people get to see what a Brittany really looks like.

Fortunately, no one asked me if K is an ABR dog, because she came from the National Brittany Rescue and Adoption Network. I volunteer for both groups.

Notice I did not say “dog” show? It was a pet expo. There were all sorts of pets there. Birds, cats, alpacas, monkeys… even a contingent of people from the American Gerbil Society.

I did not walk around nearly as much as I would have liked to since K was with me. She did very, very well, but I think the crazy sounds (squawking parrots) and smells (miniature horses and alpacas) were sort of freaking her out.

This is a Eurasian Eagle Owl. Obviously, it’s an owl typically found in Europe, but it reminded me of the Great Horned Owls we have in the US, which I think are very cool. I would have asked the guy about him, but when K and I walked by, he was sitting in a pen that had a sign reading something like “world’s largest rodent, eats 9 pounds of food a day” and talking to someone else. I didn’t want K to spook the owl, so I took a quick picture and we moved on.

One of the reasons I like doing stuff like this, in addition to helping the dogs of course, is that I get to meet and talk with lots of different people. I get to see lots of dogs, too. In fact, when I arrived, I could not find the ABR booth. I saw a couple with two liver-and-white Brittanys. They saw us and exclaimed, “Look another Brittany!” (Britts aren’t that common in Maryland) We chatted briefly and then they directed me to the ABR booth.

I took quite a few pictures, but most didn’t turn out very well. I didn’t feel like lugging my big camera, so I relied on the little point-and-shoot I recently bought. It just did not do well on indoor pictures. I will, however, share some of the images from the day.

The picture below is Julia Smith and her dog, Cooper. Oddly enough…

• He is also a liver and white roan, one of the least common color patterns for Brittanys
• Cooper was adopted from ABR in 2004 (the same year we adopted CeCe)
• He was fostered by the same foster family in Virginia (Kelly and Jeff Murray) that fostered CeCe
• He is the reason Julia became an ABR volunteer (CeCe is the reason we got involved, too)

Here’s another picture of Cooper.

I have some other shots to share, too, even if they are not the highest quality pictures in the world.

Andrea, the Maryland ABR Coordinator, is Chester’s mom. She has another boy dog, Bodie, who I could not seem to capture in a decent picture.

Finally… an anonymous big-ass (literally!) dog.

Clifford is a Newfoundland. I forget how old he is. Maybe about 4. But I do remember that he weighs 165 pounds! And he is not overweight.

The same folks also had a “little” brown Newfie puppy, who at 15 weeks weighs 34 pounds, which is more than Belle or K!

Wanna know the puppy’s name? She is Emily Elizabeth. 🙂

Clifford was very sweet, and very well taken care of by his family. All I kept thinking, though, was, “My lord, I’d hate to see one of his poo piles!”

And that was my Saturday. Sunday was a really, really fun day, but I’ll have to tell you about that tomorrow. I have to get to work…