What a day, what a day!!

We arrived at the palatial estate in Sacramento at about 1:15 and after checking in at the Golden Greeters table and after a few "shake and howdies" we picked our shady spot to start welcoming the guests. We saw Shelby's doctor, foster mom and dad and some other folks from Homeward Bound who helped her after her amputation and met others from the rescue/sanctuary. We also posed for pictures and met the other golden greeters. I'm always amazed at the color variations and sizes of golden's, all the way from a deep golden red to the light blond and from over a hundred pounds to Shelby's 38. 

The next 4 hours are a bit if a blur, we met a ton of folks and talked about Homeward Bound, golden's, what it's like to live with a tripawd, how it's better to hop on three than limp on four, how there is one less muddy pawprints to clean up, why Shelby has a wagon, how Shelby came all the way from Taiwan and how we adapted our house to help her and how a 3 legged dog can do anything a 4 legged dog can do. We also shared with them Shelby is a certified social/therapy dog and will start her hospital and VA rehab visits in the very near future. We met several people who currently lived with tripads and gave them information about the tripawd.com website. One couple talked to us about how their dog was just diagnosed with cancerous growth on his knee joint and they really didn't know what to do. We let them know there are people that could offer support and advise even though their dog was not yet a tripawd. We talked to one couple who told us his brother had a tripawd and as we talked to him about the site he texted the information to his brother. Shelby received several compliments on her black harness with the "bling" on it and one local law enforcement fella saw her harness and said that is just what they were looking for for their dogs, without the "bling" of course! 

We met a couple from an east bay German Shepherd Rescue who know a young Wyatt Ray !

Out of nowhere a tennis ball appeared, go figure, goldens and a tennis ball, most folks have never seen a tripawd chasing a tennis ball. Folks would throw the ball and Shelby would chase it and bring it back. One 8 year old boy really enjoyed Shelby's company, so they played together for quite a while. Shelby had brought some autographed photo's of her in her wagon and she gave one to the boy. About an hour later the boy along with his father and older sister came back by and as they played with Shelby let us know they were going to rescue a golden and give it a forever home.

Before we knew it it was 6 o'clock and our day at Kibble's and Bids had come to a close. We had a ball, what a day!

It was a long walk to the truck, we loaded up and got ready for the 2 hour drive home. Shelby slept all the way home, it was a big day for her. We were half way home when we realized we hadn't taken any pictures of Shelby and her "bling" harness or the beautiful site of the event. We hope we did some good today. Hopefully someone learned that 3 legged dogs really can do anything a 4 legged dog can do, or, there is a site where people are there for each other when you need them to be. We hope the 8 year old boy gets his golden, heck, every boy needs a dog when they're growing up and we hope it's a rescue.

We were very honored to be asked to be a part of this most worthwhile event and would love to be asked to participate again.