Birthday shoutouts: 14O511 - Kelly's 19th ; 15O511 - Shirley L.'s 19th; 22O511 - Titan's 19th; Peter D.'s 20th.
Last Sunday, Karen and I volunteered for the Million Paws Walk event. Karen was the one who informed me about the event. Unfortunately, there was track work that morning, so we took the bus to Lidcombe station at 6:20AM in the morning =___='. It was freezing cold!!! I wore 3 - 4 layers of clothing, a scarf, mittens, and 2 pairs of socks and I was STILL cold =____=. Yep, winter's definitely coming. We then took the train from Lidcombe station to Olympic Park station, where the event was held. We signed in and waited for our leaders to take us to our booths. Karen was doing cupcakes while I was doing competitions. We waited for 15 - 20 minutes but still no one showed up so we decided to look for the booths ourselves. After we found where our booths were located, we went to our separate activities. I honestly didn't help much.
Competition booth.
Karen and I.
There wasn't much that we could do at our booth besides waiting for customers. I helped stick up photos, but that's about it. I guess the cold weather was draining my excitement away. But then it came back as more and more cute looking dogs came to the competition booth. They were all just so damn adorable! When I saw one of my team members taking photos, I couldn't help myself and started taking photos too. There was a particularly cute puppy that I saw. It was a brown poodle and it was only 3 - 4 months old. The owner said that it cost her $800 O_O pure breed I'm assuming. We encouraged them to enter it, but they didn't. What a shame =(. It would've won, without a doubt. I swear, it looked like a bear plushie, it didn't even sound like a dog when it was crying. IT WAS SO CUTE xD !!!!!!!! I just wanted to steal it and run away with it xO !!! Afterward, I just went around taking photos of dogs and encourage them to enter their dogs in the competitions. I had quite an exercise taking photos of the dogs seeing that most of the time they're too excited to sit still.
The adorable 3 - 4 months old poodle puppy =).
The weather got warmer as it reached the afternoon. To warm myself up even more, I went to get a cup of hot chocolate. While I was waiting in line, there were these HUMONGOUS dogs I've ever seen, well... beside the greyhounds. But these are dogs I've never seen before. Well, there were a lot of dogs I haven't seen before, but at least I know what they are from photos. These dogs, I had no idea what breed it was (something that ends with burger... I swear it did, that' why I remembered it). The owner said that it's a rare breed or something like that. It looked kind of like a German Shepherd, but a bigger and fluffier version. Well, anyways, I was scratching the bigger one on the side and I guess it liked the way I was scratching it, so it sat down (on my foot...) and sandwiched me between itself and the cafe counter ... It was quite hard to turn around seeing my back was against the counter and all. I know I'm not that tall to begin with, but it's like 1/2 - 3/4 my height or something O_o.
The huge dog! To other 'normal' people, it's up to their waist; to me, it's up to my chest...
I went to visit Karen when the walk began at around 10/11AM and then went back to taking more photos =). There was a particularly adorable chihuahua that got attached to me. It was so cute and scared of the other dogs, it crawled onto my lap and stayed there AWWW I wish I could keep it, but I had to put it down =/. After the walk, it was the competitions. There were 3 competitions: a) cutest pet; b) owner look-alike; and c) best dressed. I felt bad for the judging of the cutest pet because it was quite short. All the judging for the competitions were short =/. Some people even missed out because they were late. I also felt bad for them too but then again, they should've been there at the start. Though, some people were late because of the walk. Anyways, out of all the judges, all I remember was Dr. Katrina. She had adopted a dog for herself too (not from the event though, it was from before) and she was judging the cutest pet. The judges chose the best 5 and the audience chooses the winner. I don't remember who won the cutest pet nor do I think I have a photo of the dog. However, I DO know that for the owner look-alike, it was the superman Labrador and a boy who won (I wanted the clown dog and the girl to win though. Both the superman dog and the clown dog were wearing matching costume as the owners) and I think it was because he was child compared to the girl; and for the best dressed, it was the 2 dogs who dressed up as policemen.
The chihuahua that got attached to me =). It's actually sitting on my lap in that photo.
Dr. Katrina.
Best dressed winners.
Pet look-alike. It looked more like best dressed to me...
Since the competitions ended early, the competition booth packed up early too. I went to Karen's booth and waited for her to finish. I ate some cupcakes while I was at it. I also bought some doggie treats for Toby and watched how they wash the dogs and what the heck they were doing to make the poor things scream in despair. Turns out that the dog(s) just really hate water. The one I was watching hated it so much that it was crying and clawing and biting into the mat. It was an interesting sight to behold. I also went to the adoption area and saw the dogs up for adoption. I even saw a poster of a chihuahua of 5 months old for adoption. What kind of person or mother would abandon such a young puppy?! But I guess it will be bought quickly since people prefer young dogs than old ones. Most of the dogs were 1 or 2 years old. There was even one that was 5 years old. There was also a rooster who was up for adoption too O_o. There was this particular adoption dog that was quite friendly towards me. It was very energetic and it makes me smile when I look at it =). I wish I could keep it, but I already have Toby =/. I hope they all find good homes. Mum said I should've brought Toby along. I thought I couldn't since I was volunteering. Maybe I will next year =).
Cupcakes =). I was going to take them home, but I waited too long for Karen that I ate them all there on the stop anyways, as lunch =P.
Afterward, Karen and I just went home with our free bags and movie voucher as a reward for helping out with the event. There were also other things in the bag too like caps, sunscreen, pen and wet wipes =). My assignment was due the next day and I was extremely tired but I had fun. I had no regrets =). Also, I've never seen so many dogs in my life xD.
PSS. There were these 2 girls who had rats for pets. That's the only other type of animal that I've seen at the event, besides dogs. I was amazed =D!
PSSS. Throughout the day, we had these duo singing and playing the guitar on stage for us. They had pretty good taste in music, according to my team members anyways =).
The duo performers/singers and the judge (on the left).
