Sweating for the Pets to Support the Humane Society of Southern Arizona
On Sunday, October 22, the McSquare Doodles walked the University of Arizona's Mall to support the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in their Sweat for Pets: Walk, Run & Roll. This 3K event included 800 human walkers and runners, and 400 dogs raising $47,765.
Even though we went to the dog park and had a long walk on Saturday, Bernie and Lizzie were both pretty excitable Sunday morning. As soon as we hopped out of the car, they wanted to sniff everything. College campuses contain many exotic sniffs!
Once we got to the vendor area with more people and pups, the McSquare Doodles calmed down a bit. I was really glad that a group of friends from work met up for this event because a family friend offered to walk Bernie. He's been to a few events with multiple dogs so he relaxed quickly, but this was Lizzie's first time interacting with a crowd of this size.
Right away, she took to wearing the purple bandana. Missy Moo doesn't mind accessories at all. Bernie, on the other hand, considered the bandana a nuisance equating it to the annoyance of his harness. When he started biting at the bandana, we tied it to my backpack instead.
Once we started walking, Lizzie did really well. She'd pull to the side a few times and she consistently wanted to be close to her brother, even crossing her leash over his back to walk on his other side. Reminded me of Ghostbusters: Don't cross the streams!
After the walk, we visited the vendor area. I picked up a copy of The Tucson Dog, a new publication full of news not just about dogs, but cats and horses too.
We also found Scruffy, the Dogtopia dog. Even though the pups had no idea what was going on, when my friend asked if I wanted a picture with the ginormous blow-up dog, I decided to document the moment.
When we got home, the Doodles crashed on the sofa. Walking and interacting with so many other dogs and people wore them out! I love taking the pups to special events to vary up our routine. They're exposed to new sights, sounds, smells, which helps socialize them around other dog-loving responsible pet parents. And we helped support the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.