Pet Expo

Mom saw this ad for a pet expo down at Vet's memorial last Saturday afternoon. Knowing how much we all love animals, we looked it up online and decided to head over there on Sunday.

We opted to go after Amara's nap, so we didn't get started till almost 3--then ran by Jason's to see new baby Gideon, and didn't get to the expo till after 3:30...BUT...immediately upon pulling up, the GIANT dog characters automatically got a big smile!

After Amara greeted the giant dogs, and about a dozen other real dogs, we went into the expo. The nice man pointed us straight into the 'kiddie' area--and we ran smack into a pony-ride ring. I really hadn't given pony rides any thought--because I didn't know they would be there, so it was a pretty quick process. She started reaching for them, and dad got in line :)

This one smaller horse caught her eye. Each time the group got around to him, she would point to him emphatically, and we decided he had to be the one. As she walked around to him, the horse caretaker came over to stand by me. So late in the day, things weren't as packed--but he was enjoying Amara enjoying his horse. He gave me the story:

His name is Laffy Taffy. 22 years old, he came to the farm as a rescue at age 4. This farmer has been taking Laffy on pony ride trips for 18 years. Can you believe that? He was out of cards, but I jotted the farm's name and info down for future use (they are in New Holland, not TOO far away, and DO parties :))

Amara loved every second on her ride and did NOT want to get off at all. Fearing if we went back for another ride, that we may never get any further, we quickly redirected to the petting area. The bunnies and chickens were first, and Amara jumped right in there. Literally. Maybe it's from all the dogs she is around, from holding the bunny a few weeks ago, or just her--but she had no reservations at all. We visited bunnies, chickens, a sheep, goat, and some baby ducks....before...the giant bounce house caught her eye.

The operators insisted one of us go in with her, to protect her from the bigger kids, and I guess I lost that draw. We went in and ran from side to side, peeking out at daddy from the windows and again--did not want to get out.

We headed over to see some dog obedience tricks--this was not entertaining enough...so we headed to the Columbus Dock Dogs area--a real winner. This is where the dogs run a runway and jump after a decoy into water and then their jump is measured. Each time the dog would jump, she'd immediately yell MORE and wait for the next dog to get up the ramp.

Conveniently close to that area--HAPPENED to be the snow cone stand. Since we hadn't had anything to eat or drink, and we all wanted a break, we caved. Dad and Amara shared their first (grape) snowcone of the season, and maybe ever! She loved it--so much so, that getting it away from her to dump off some of the syrup was difficult!

We headed back to the main area and caught a little bit of the dog trick Frisbee show (Amara spotted another Easter bunny too, where she immediately went up to him and patted his leg--before we could wrangle her back to us) and then made our way to the car.

We didn't get any pictures of the dogs, cats, birds, etc. but we had a great time--we've put it on the schedule for next year, and I look forward to more events like this. Thank goodness we made it home with no adoptions and only 1 snow-cone purchase (oh, I forgot, there was a soft pretzel in there somewhere too).