3 Weddings and a Dog Party

King's Park was the place to be on Saturday, with the First Annual King's Park Dog Party sharing the grounds with 3 wedding parties and their photographers. All routes into the off-leash area seemed to take us past nervous brides and their entourages, but not so much as a noseprint marked the nuptial finery.

The weather looked like it might force us to cancel the whole thing, with both wind and hail warnings reported for the afternoon. But the gods smiled and the storm clouds detoured neatly around us while leaving us with cooling breezes and a little cloud cover, which made for ideal fetching conditions.

I've heard some estimates that as many as 40 people attended the party throughout the afternoon and early evening. That's a fantastic turnout for our modestly advertised event. It was a wonderful mingling of old friends and new visitors, many of whom said they would return again. All the dogs got along, and played happily, although Chica and Coco decided that it would be more fun to stay in the screen house with me as I doled out raffle tickets.

Speaking of the raffle, as a fundraiser for the new park signs the event was also a success. We raised $350.00 on Saturday and with pledges of more dollars coming in, we will definitely make our goal of $400.00!! I talked to Park Technician Drew Williams today to let him know the good news and I think he was quite surprised. ;) It certainly helped that Drew was able to confirm that donors would get tax receipts from the City of Winnipeg for the park improvement, and I think this is information that we can use effectively for further fundraising efforts.

Last but not least, the potluck was fabulous, with many tasty dishes and some leftovers too....although nobody (human or canine) went home hungry!

All of this would not have been possible without the King's Park Dog Association's help and generous donations. Credit goes to:

Astrid and Sammy for the large bag of tennis balls,
Hedy, Shady & Tasha for donating bags of dog food for the raffle
Holly and Emily for the yummy potato salad
Iva, Peter and Grizzly for the delicious fruit platters
Jeannie, Jonathan, Paul (in absentia) and Meggie for the appetizing casserole that I didn't get around to tasting ;)
Jodie and Malik for the scrumptious pasta salad
Mary Jane, Luna and Bart for the equally scrumptious meatballs
Mitch, Gloria and Carmen, for donating toys and goodies, making excellent cabbage rolls, and bringing out the tables, plates, cups, and all-important garbage bags
Mora, for donating the small doggie bed in memory of Aspen.

My apologies if I've forgotten anyone who contributed to the potluck or raffle; special thanks to Holly and Jodie who figured out the screen house, and who assembled and disassembled it quickly and efficiently. Thanks to everyone who helped to schlep the loads of food, chairs, tables etc. from the parking lot and back again. Also of course very many hearty thanks to all those who so generously gave money to the signage project. I'm hearing that everyone had such a good time that a fall supper might be in the works....I'll post info on that when I hear more.

I think it would be hard to decide who had a better Saturday - the 3 wedding parties....or the pack of happy dogs and their people!