Today was one of my favorite days of the whole year! The annual "My Dog Loves Central Park Country Fair, smack dab in the middle of Central Park. There are probably several thousand dogs and their people attending (over 8,000 last year!) and it was a glorious day.
There were lots of booths with free dog treats, micro-chipping and information about becoming a therapy dog. There were dogs and kitties there for adoption, two guys auditioning dogs for David Letterman's Stupid Pet tricks, you name it!
I went with my friend Jazz, an 11 year old Schnoodle who lives just a few blocks from the park, so he could let me know the best places to leave my pee-mails.
Here we are laughing at our Mommies as they try to get us to hold still together and smile for the camera "Cheese--burgers with bacon!"
They have lots of fun things for dogs to do with their owners. There were spoon races where you had to run with your owner while they held an egg in a spoon without dropping it.
Mommy and I ran through this maze in 26 seconds! The lowest time was 13 seconds and we could have beat that if someone hadn't sabotaged the maze by dropping dog biscuits all through it. I was probably the only doggie that ate his way along the course!
My favorite thing to do was the agility course! We had to wait 45 minutes to do it, because so many dogs wanted to give it a try. I had to jump over hurdles, through a tire like this (twice!), run through a tunnel, and then go up one end of a teeter-totter and down the other (that took a couple tries because I fell off a couple times until I got the hang of it.) I was much faster than the other doggies trying the course.
There was a pawsome costume contest for the most Fashionable New Yorker. I liked the doggie in the Yankees shirt myself. (Do you recognize that Jack Russell giving his paws a sniff? More later!)
These were two of the finalists -- the great pumpkin pup and Frankensteindog.
He was so small, I don't think you could make a pumpkin pie from him!
Okay, guess who the celebrity dog judge and owner were? Elvis and Dave from
The Greatest American Dog!!! OMD!!! Elvis was our absolute favorite! Not only was he from New York, but he was the awesomest terrier!!!
Look! I even got my photo taken with him! He was really swell, not a big showoff. Mommy thought he was soooo adorable and very sweet. (Elvis, that is.) Dave was very nice too. He told us that there were lots of rattlesnakes where the show was shot - one day they took away 13! And alot of the events were held in a horse corral so Elvis was very interested in the smells rather than the events. I don't blame him! He's a city dog, after all.
Wow. I can't believe I got to meet my terrier idol from TV!
There were also lots of book readings -- "Dog Tales"-- from new books about dogs. This fellow rescued the Chihuahuas that are on Broadway playing Bruiser in "Legally Blonde" from a shelter. From rags to riches - that's a true Broadway story on the "Avenue of Dreams...."
Just look at all the books about dogs! Mommy's favorite title was "Puppy Chow is Better Than Prozac." I don't read, so I'll just have to wait for the movie. (Although we did pick up complimentary copies of
Animal Fair and
Bark magazines - for the pictures!)
The event was hosted by a Cav, one of the organizer's doggies, who happened to be wearing this very excellent tee-shirt!
I was wearing my "Bark Obama" tee-shirt all day (www.petsvote.com) and we got asked about 1,000 times where we got our shirt! So we decided to hit the campaign trail together!
While there were lots of fun things to do (and LOTS of fun things to eat! Rachel Ray's new dog treats in Bacon or Peanut Butter are AMAZING!), the best part of the day was seeing all the different kinds of doggies, just hanging out together and having a great time on a beautiful fall day in New York.
Check out this assortment of pups!
There were little teensy dogs....
And ginormously humungous dogs!
There were dogs from Germany (Wouldn't Lorenza look cute in one of these coats?)...
And dogs from Olde England....
These two French beauties....
And everyone got along. It didn't matter if they were big or small, old or young, or where they were from or what color they were. If they were beautiful or ugly, were purebred or mutt.
Next to the Fair was a beautiful field where hundreds of dogs were romping around playing and rolling in the grass and laughing and barking and having a marvelous time. I played ball with a 9-month old Cockapoo named Harley, she was delightful!
At the end of the afternoon, nobody wanted the day to end. It was magical!
On our way out of Central Park, we walked through Strawberry Fields, the beautiful and peaceful memorial to John Lennon, who lived (and died) nearby. People had brought flowers and arranged them in a peace sign on the "Imagine" mosaic....
I wished, and not just for the first time, that people could be as smart as dogs and get along with one another as well as we do. Our sole purpose is just to love and be loved.
I hummed a little of John Lennon's song "Imagine" all the way home on the bus.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.
This looks like a Snowman who overdid it with the self-tanner!
Ah ha! Of course Jackson had something to do with it!
The park across the street has a fun HOWL-oween tradition. The local supermarket donated 100 pumpkins and everyone in the neighborhood is invited to take a pumpkin home, carve it and then bring it back to be lit up in the park.
Here I am posing with one at the base of the big statue. It looks like I'm at a scary cemetery, doesn't it?
The carved Jack-o-lanterns are tucked under trees all around the park. It's eerie...
Just look what happens if you stare at a lit pumpkin too long!!!
Tomorrow I'll be globe-trotting - first to Eric, Asta and Lacie's pawty at the Tower of London, then back to New York, just in time for our annual party at the dog run. 
