Sometimes, when you talk to many, many members of the public something someone says just sticks with you. Today that was a lady who said that Barbie's head looked like a bike seat. Actually she said all the Greyhounds had heads that looked like bike seats, especially with their eyes closed.
I thought it was hilarious, and laughed for ages. I can see the resemblance, can you?
Barbie doesn't think it is such a funny joke, I think she is afraid I will try to sit on her head now.
When we first arrived at the Canning Show, I met up with another Greyhounds as Pets volunteer at the gate, but it took us a while to find the GAP stall. The band was in full swing and it gave Barbie a bit of a scare. It also started to rain. In her attempt to find somewhere safe and comfortable, Barbie ran up the steps of the 'gym bus'. The guy at the door seemed to find it amusing, though I had to expend a lot of effort to convince Barbie to get down.
When we finally found the GAP stall Barbie was a bit rattled and ended up sleeping in the back corner of the tent. It took her a good hour to calm down and come out to meet and greet people.
In the mean time Nancy, Nigel and Oscar were doing all the work. Nigel was the youngest of the Greyhounds there this afternoon, and he definitely put in the most effort.
Nigel was also popular because he was the only dog there in the afternoon shift who wasn't black. A lot of people liked to compare him to a tiger. He wasn't very tiger-ish, unless that tiger was actually a teddy bear!
Nigel lives with a lovely four year old hound called Nancy who looks a little like Barbie, enough that her mum asked who Barbie's parents were as she thought they might be related.
Once Nancy and Nigel were both tired, they settled down together on the dog beds. Nancy adores being patted and she spent a lot of time sitting on my feet getting scratches, while Barbie slept in the corner!
Oscar is a very toy motivated character, the kind of dog that would be great to train for agility. He has a thing for balloons, which his mum only discovered when they were at the Royal Show. Kids would come to pat him holding one and he would be trying to steal it! He had gotten quite crafty at trying to nab a balloon for himself, when he went around the back of the tent for a walk, he nosed under the tent. He had realised there was a balloon there and was trying to get to it. He is very gentle with them though and has never popped one. I am not sure if it would put him off though.
After Barbie had her sleep and settled down after the scary encounter with the band, the rain also cleared up a little bit, and we all stepped out of the stall for a little while. Oscar and Nancy decided to have a little rest, while Barbie and Nigel were patted.
All the dogs did really well, often being patted by multiple people at once. I thought I got a picture of Barbie with a bunch of cute kids but I guess I didn't! I spent more time taking pictures of her friends.
We were asked to stack everything in the middle of the tent at the end of the day, but Nancy didn't like the beds being moved, so she made sure they wouldn't be taken away.
Barbie and Oscar gave each other a little kiss as we walked back out to the car park to go home. I think Barbie's favourite part of these meet-n-greets is meeting the other Greyhounds. She was more than happy to play a supporting role to the others.
