Spring was late arriving in Denver, Colorado. May was unusually cool, with atypical, steady rain for days. Therefore, we held our breath for a break in the wet weather for the Botanic Bow Wow, held Saturday, May 21st . Ultimately, the weather cooperated; Saturday was mostly sunny, breezy – and dry!
Botanic Bow Wow, a new, dog-centric event at the Denver Botanical Gardens, attracted a variety of vendors, dog rescue groups and information booths. GRIN was fortunate to secure the last available space in the event.
The Botanic Bow Wow was held on the upper level parking structure at the gardens. Much as we would have liked to be amidst the blooming plants, we know from experience that dogs and fancy gardens don’t mix!
Although we had GRIN themed articles to sell, a PowerPoint presentation and plenty of literature, the real attention-grabbers were the galgos, podencos and Pyrenean shepherd* themselves. We were so fortunate that Esperanza, Poco, Prisa, Lexi and the Nuggets (Quito and Cervantes) attended the event. It was plain to see that interacting with the dogs really brought home to the public the message about the sad fate of sighthounds and other dogs in Spain. And each one of our ambassadogs had quite a story to tell. The GRIN booth had a fair amount of traffic and some interesting responses, such as one woman, a member of WSPA, who was going to write and tell the organization to investigate the situation of the galgos and another who offered to write about the dogs in a local newspaper. Although donations were modest, we felt we had helped to fulfill GRIN’s mission to educate the public. Hopefully, too, attendees will visit the GRIN website and become more involved, perhaps adding their voices to campaigns, donating money and supplies and even adopting or sponsoring one of these special dogs.
A warm thanks to Christie, Kim, Gail, Jennifer, Eric, Kay and a special thanks to Paula who knocked together a beautiful “Galgo Rescue” banner at the 11th hour and located a canopy for us. And to the dogs who speak volumes with their soulful eyes.
*Lexi, from RECAL, once thought to be a terrier mix, was discovered by Paula to be a Pyrenean shepherd….but that’s another story!
