Pet Expo 2008

Yesterday my mom and dad went to the Pet Expo at the Orange County Fairgrounds with Wilbur's mom and dad. It was pretty hot (in the 90's) and the place was jam packed. The first building they saw when they entered the fairgrounds was the Millennium Barn. That was where they exhibited all of the large animals. As you can imagine, the heat made that barn a pretty stinky place. Wilbur's mom wanted to get up-wind of it ASAP!

There were lots of adoptable dogs and cats on display. My mom and dad are thinking about adopting another dog to keep me company because Taz is in his golden years and isn't able to play with me anymore. They looked at lots of nice dogs but these are the four that they really liked. First up is "Toby". Toby is a smooth coat Collie... he's basically the same as a Lassie dog but without the long fur. Toby practically jumped over his barrier to give my dad kisses. (That scored major points with my dad!) He also wanted to give my human sister Alyson kisses... (that scored major points with both my mom and my dad!)

Next they saw Jake. Jake is a Border Collie mix. One of the nice things about Jake is that he has the smarts of a Border Collie without the hyper personality of a Border Collie. He is very, very sweet and not super huge. My mom and dad liked Jake a lot!

Tyra is another beauty that my mom and dad are considering. Tyra was available through the Irvine Animal Care Center which was kind of neat because that was the first construction job that my dad was a superintendent on when he and my mom were living in Orange County. The Animal Care Center is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year - my dad couldn't believe that it's been 25 years since he worked on that project! My mom (unbelievably!) didn't get a picture of Tyra but here's a photo of a lab that looks very similar to her. My mom and dad loved Tyra's personality... she was very mellow and definitely gravitated to Alyson. My dad thinks that Tyra would make an excellent therapy dog.

Last but certainly not least is Elvis. Well at least we think this is Elvis. When my mom checked her Elvis photo against the Elvis on the Basset Rescue website it was definitely not the same dog! So maybe this Elvis is an Elvis impersonator (hee!) But I digress... Elvis is a total love bug and he gave my dad lots of kisses. Elvis is being adopted out by the Basset Hound Rescue of Southern California - the same place where Wilbur came from! My mom is trying to convince Wilbur's mom to adopt Elvis because Wilbur needs a Basset buddy to play with. (Plus it will narrow my mom and dad's choices down to only three and help make their decision easier!)

My mom and dad are still talking things over. They're not 100% sure that they want to add another dog to the family right now. There's probably a good chance that some or all of these dogs will be adopted before they make up their minds which is okay... there's plenty of other dogs who need good homes! We just wanted to share our short list with you.... my mom took lots of additional pictures which she'll probably compile into a kodak gallery album. There's way too many to post on my blog! Bye for now, Ollie