Howl-O-Weenie!

My feet hurt. My legs hurt. My back hurts. My triceps hurt. But my heart is full of gratitude and my head is abuzz with ideas for next year.

We howled yesterday!

Our 5th annual festival and picnic was a huge success! I am so tired I can't put together a coherent narrative, so I will just list for you some of the memories that stick out.

Spotting the peacock as it strutted around the grounds. What an engineering feat that costume was!

Meeting Gloria, who told me this was the best day she'd had in years, and now she wants to adopt a dachshund.

Seeing the alumni dogs, the fosters who we loved and cared for until their forever homes found them, looking so happy and well-loved by their new families. I know I will leave someone out, but here's a try: Midnight (Murphy), Giacomo (Murphy), Patti (Erica), Bart, Lacey, Teddy, Ande, Bobo, Lorelei, Beans, Tracy (Amber), Sydney, and Doc-a-doodle.

The shards of mirror from the beautiful mosaic dog beds and highchair, reflecting the sunlight.

Carol's amazing dachshund trophies.

The hotdog line, moving fast, full of people who looked happy to be spending an afternoon of glorious weather outside watching the crazy weiner dog people.

So many people wearing the 2005 and 2006 T-shirts! Cool!

The MAD-MUG Dachshund meetup group giving the IQ tests.

Kerry from Lifeline Animal Project saying next year she was going to get someone else to run her booth so her dachshund can race.

The race! Man do those dachsies fly!

My little Tabby crossing the field to her mama while everyone cheered.

All the people who came by to meet the 3 "down" dachsies and learn about them and their high quality of life. Tabby, Luke, and Jack enjoyed all the attention.

The doggie whose nail clipping hit the quick and his mama holding him while they applied pressure.

The lady who scolded me about not having recycling bins, right after I made a note to myself to make sure to have recycling bins next year. Oy!

Walking around the ballfield holding RLand's weirdly beautiful dachshund art over my head for the auction.

Trish and Paul arriving out of breath, just in time to enter Darcy and Panzer in the last heat of the dash, because they made Paul's parents leave the game at halftime.

Realizing during cleanup that I hadn't gone to the bathroom since 7 AM.

Seeing my work colleague Bill crossing the picnic with his family and 5 longhairs.

Talking to Heather and Derek about how far Lorelei has come in her shyness.

I'm sure I'll come back and add more over the course of the day.

(By the way, this pic is of a little guy who arrived too late for the costume contests. As you can see, "The Fuzz" was out in force!)

Oh, how we howled!