Thursday, September 24, 2015
New England Pet Expo 2015
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?
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There was a lot going on! How cool that you got to see Freida... I hear she's not doing so well these days and needs some tests. The Pet Expos here in southern California tend to be very large, covering several buildings, each focusing on a type of animal - cats, dogs, reptiles, farm animals, etc. Sometimes they have cat shows there - in fact, I was at one earlier this year! The show shared a building with the reptiles, so my human was in heaven.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a fun event to visit. The pet expos here kept falling when the head peep was out of town either at family events or BlogPaws. The local events were moved to a much less desirable/smaller venue then discontinued entirely. After one visit to the "pets in the park" (read: dogs and a couple terrified cats who she had to tell the organization to give some shade) the head peep has pretty much given up on local pet events, much to her disappointment.
ReplyDeleteThose big hairy creatures were kind of cool!
ReplyDeleteLove the t shirts! And ROTLF about the abandoned booth. I'm not big on pet events, and there aren't a lot here anyway. I'd rather give my money directly to a shelter. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt takes a HUGE amount of will-power to keep one's mouth closed, when poor animal advice is given out! I applaud you! Haven't been to any events like what you've described in this post; I volunteer at cat adoptions on the weekends. Dealing with uneducated folks is the hardest part.
ReplyDeletemom wants to see if that "guilty" t-shirt comes in a size she can put on Mozart MOL
ReplyDeletesometimes these expos are hit or miss but it sounds like this one had some decent cat info :) LOVE the lady telling people that her dog is not the ideal.... and that "abandoned animals" booth made mom laugh
TW is going to one in NYC next month. I love those t-shirts and we all love the Smart Cat litter here.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a great time!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the photos...
Noodle and crew
MeeOW dat sounds purretty pawsum. Da only plce weez been was BlogPaws. And yes, we fink it wwas way to dog oriented still. And da doggies there wasn't all so well behaved. Knowin' they're gunna be there and havin' to put up wiff bad behavior cuz their pawents awen't payin' 'tentiion or don't care awe 2 diffewent fings. We fink ifin yous take yous pet out in public they shuld be well behaved and yous shuld pay 'tention to all they be duin' at all times. Weez sure hopin' we get to go to BlogPaws in Arizona.
ReplyDeleteLuv ya'
Dezi and Lexi
I had NO IDEA there was a pet expo going on here. Thanks so much for the pictures. I love some of those tee shirts! I wouldn't have been able to go anyway, because I am socked in with a big illustration project. Glad the cats were well represented.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you had great time. We love the t-shirts ! Purrs
ReplyDeleteGreat post! You make me want to go to an expo. However, here in PA, at least in my neck of the woods, cats are definitely second class citizens. I find hard to believe there would be much for cats. I'm a CA native and boy did I take for granted all the wonderful things for animals--cats too!--they have there. Anyway, I enjoyed reading this and seeing the pics. Those t-shirts are so cute!
ReplyDeleteWe are just reading gthe post and looking at photos and we had such fun, what more you who were there personally.
ReplyDeleteEmma and Buster
That looked like a fun event...not too big. We MOL'ed at the Pioneer Pet guy not knowing what a blogger is. The mom has gotten that a few times too.
ReplyDeleteWe went to the Atlanta Pet Expo with Sophie several months bag - it was also mostly dog centric, though there were a couple of cat booths. We were able to get Sophie microchipped at low cost too, which was nice. MOL at the abandoned abandoned-animal booth. I wonder if that was some sort of statement... Anyway, looks like you guys had a good time!
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to have gone and met you there, I live in Massachusetts.
ReplyDelete