Bringing up Bella: paws in the park

"The Worcester County Horticultural Society, the third oldest active horticultural society in the United States, is a nonprofit "educational organization for the purpose of advancing the science, and encouraging and improving the practice of, horticulture."" -- Tower Hill Botanic Garden, the headquarters of WCHS.

We've been really busy this spring/summer preparing our yard in support of the Tower Hill Botanic Garden's annual fund-raiser: "City Spaces, Country Places" garden tour. It's been a tremendous amount of work but our gardens haven't looked this good in, well, ever.

Unfortunately, that means we were unable to attend some of the pet-friendly events in the area this year. (Altogether now: "Boo hiss, bad pet parents!") We usually attend a variety of these events for several reasons not the least of which is to continue developing Bella's social skills. Since most of the rescue organizations I volunteer with are represented, it's a good time to catch up and take pictures of the pups. And I usually pick one event/organization for which to raise funds each year. It's also just a whole load of fun.

This year the event planners themselves kind of hurt their cause by scheduling several of the events for the same day so we wouldn't have been able to attend all of them anyway. We are still planning to get to Buddy Dog's "Woofstock" in October which was the best of them all last year anyway, at least from a "dog in need of space"'s perspective. (Wow, that's a grammatical nightmare...)

While we didn't get to go to these events this year, we did go last year and since we didn't have a blog last year, that leaves me with pictures and no place to put them. And, since my arms are pretty much ready to fall off from hauling mulch continuously for the last 72 hours (okay, perhaps I exaggerate...), I thought it might be ~~easier~~ fun to show some pictures here.

Paws in the Park - May 2011

Sponsored by Save A Dog, Inc, this was only our second big event with Bella and we really didn't know what to expect of either the event or the dog. And of course, I forgot my camera. But here are a few pictures of Bella courtesy Buddy Dog Humane Society who was taking pictures of all their "alums".

All decked out in her "I'm adopted" bandana, harness, collar and head halter.
(Geez, mom, a little overkill or what?)

Bella finds a friend.

The photographer loved her.

You can see more of their photos here Buddy Dog's Facebook photos or read a nice little write-up (and view lots of pictures!) by the Sudbury Patch.

Whisker Walk - June 2011

Better prepared for this event, I did remember my camera. This is an incredible, free event sponsored by Sterling Animal Shelter, Inc. but not one I would recommend for "dogs in need of space" since there isn't any. Well, there's lots of space but it is all filled with dogs and kids. This is more of a "country fair" kind of atmosphere with rides and games for the kids with the dog event feeling almost like an after-thought to me. It was a great day but pretty stressful for us and our scared-y dog.