A couple of years ago I attempted to go to a pet expo up here in Maine. I found out it was happening when I was on Facebook, so I followed the page, and I waited for the day to come. That morning I hadn't seen anything posted about the expo happening and I was confused. I checked out their page and scrolled down quite a ways and didn't see anything about it, just some cute cat and dog photos. I figured since they were still posting, and the information about the expo was still listed that it was going on. I was wrong. I was sorely disappointed
Earlier this year I learned of a pet expo going on in Massachusetts so once again I followed the page and checked in with it regularly. The day off they posted something along the lines of hope to see you there, so my husband and I jumped in the truck and headed on down.
It was a nice day for a drive. Thankfully we were mostly out of tourist season so the roads weren't so bad. These few weeks after school starts up but before the leaves turn the traffic tends to be lighter, which is so nice. Maine is beautiful, but it is kind of a pain to get in and out of so we have learned to travel on off days.
The facilities were pretty easy to find and thankfully they marked them as well. They even had Shriners there helping to direct traffic (and sadly they were being abused by people who wanted to park where they wanted to park). We got a slightly later start than I had wanted to but we were still there relatively early which was nice. I did become concerned when as we were walking in there were people already leaving, but I remembered that the show had been open for at least an hour so I just put on my 'oh well, we are here lets make the best of it - if nothing else it is blogging fodder' attitude and headed on in.






Now I was totally expecting this to be a dog focused 'Pet Expo" because apparently non cat people think the word pet and the word dog are interchangeable.. *shudder* but I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't just one token cat booth there. What did surprise me though was the number of furry 'creatures' there.. They weren't cats, they weren't really dogs either.. *shrug* I'm guessing they were amusement for any kids that showed up and well for that it really doesn't matter what they were.
The guy at Pioneer Pet was nice enough, he was handing out nice sized sample bags of their
grass based litter. I complemented him on one of their water fountains, and told another woman standing next to me that I have one of their other water fountains (which was also on display) and I like it. I told the guy behind the table that I was a blogger and he had NO idea what that meant.. almost made me laugh. It also reminded me that I was very much not at a social media event. That was okay because I wasn't really there for that, although I was hoping for blog fodder, but apparently reporting on the expo was going to be all.. and that's okay. (boo on no free water fountain though.. lol)
I adored this booth. The woman working it was super adorable too. I am sadly not a t-shirt person, but I wanted to share these with you. If you find one you can't live without you can buy it at
PawAddict.com (non paid, non affiliated link, just a bit of love for such adorable stuff)
There were a LOT of portrait places. Artists who would draw your pet, photographers who would photograph your pet and then this place which just made me giggle.
And Frieda was there!! It is always fun when I run into her. And she was actually there and out and about.. well not about.. that is her sleeping on top of the pink crate there on the right hand side of the photo. I got to pat her though. It was nice since it had been several hours since I had touched a kitty (who me? addicted? you say that like it is a bad thing!)
This was simply too ironic not to share
There were a LOT of dogs there. The people who brought their dogs had to fill out a form, and bring proof of vaccinations (I'm sure there was more stuff) and had their own separate entrance so they could 'sign in'. I hoped that they would give people stern warning to watch their dogs, but so many were having conversations while their dogs did as they pleased... I was slobbered on several times and had my path blocked multiple times, but I knew that dogs were going to be there so I took it all in stride. In general the dogs were pretty well behaved and I didn't see/hear any squabbling. The little dog in the last photo was outside with her owner and several people were oohing and aaahing after her since she was so little, but the owners were doing a very good job of explaining how this type of dog should not be this small and how many health issues she had. Hopefully it sunk in with some of the people there who wanted an uber small dog.
There was also a cat rescue there with two kittens. They had a few people lined up in front of the kittens and I waited a bit to get to see them, but one of the people manning the booth was giving advice to someone and it was advice I very very much wanted to correct, so instead I simply took my husband's hand and went to the next booth. I do know there are 100 ways to get to where you want to go and so I just walked away.
All in all a pretty good day. I purchased several holiday gifts (and a house warming gift - which may turn into a holiday gift if I don't catch up with Lion's mom between now and Christmas). I have a bag full of information and a few things I want to follow up on, so all in all a good day. Sadly a couple of hours after landing in MA I started to not feel very well (kitten withdrawal??) so we ended up calling it a day and didn't get all of the shopping in that we wanted to, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing since neither one of us really needs more 'stuff'..
What about you? Have you been to any pet related events lately? Did they go as planned? were they 'dog' and not 'pet'? Any you are looking forward to going to?