Kitty City, Sugar Gliders, and the Blue Ribbon!

Yesterday I attended The Valley Pet Expo as a volunteer for the humane society; I also sold some of my catnip toys at the OAHS table. Here are some highlights:

This expo is a new event, and one of the more innovative features was the "Kitty City" area of the venue, where attendees could meet adoptable animals and submit applications if they were interested. OAHS brought several kittens, and by the end of the day we had three applications. I would consider that a success.

Here is a close up of one of the furry friends available for adoption.

Here is a view of the t-shirt selection available at the OAHS table. My favorite shirt said "Spay and Neuter, because his isn't the only tail he's chasin'." You can also see the Fromm tables in the background. They were one of the major sponsors of the event. It was great to have them there (and I'm sure people enjoyed the free samples and the amazing coupons they handed out if you made a purchase).

I attended a presentation about exotics. The woman who gave the presentation owns 35 chinchillas and 2 hedgehogs, so she brought animals from her personal collection. During this part of the presentation she gave the history of the presence of chinchillas in the United States, and she explained that they were brought here for their fur. This particular chinchilla is rare because of the color of its fur.

Here is another chinchilla, who was my favorite because of his alert facial expressions and the adorable freckles on his ears. He's pretty photogenic here, isn't he?

Here is another photo of my favorite chinchilla taking a dust bath. I believe you could successfully photoshop this to make the chinchilla look like he was doing a Snoop Dogg impression.

I loved this hedgehog! I was somewhat bummed out. I asked if he was camera shy to make sure I could take a picture respectfully, but he still flinched when he saw my flash.

This was my favorite part of the presentation because of the absurdity of the coincidence. I had asked a question about sugar gliders at the end of the presentation, and when the presenter paused a woman in the audience said, "I've got some sugar gliders right here if you want to see some!" She then proceeded to pull two sugar gliders out of her front sweatshirt pocket. I was at a loss for words, to say the least.

Here is my side of the merchandise table. Our booth won a blue ribbon for overall best presentation. The judges appreciated our willingness to greet attendees passing by, the selection of our merchandise and the way the booth was decorated.

Our famous wheel of prizes! I helped many a person spin the wheel for a prize; it was just too bad that most of the prizes were dog related. It was a bit awkward when a cat person would spin the wheel and win a poop bag dispenser or a wash mitt, but we were flexible and let them pick whichever prize they wanted if that was the case.

Even though the air conditioner wasn't working and the traffic was somewhat slow at times, I had a great time at the expo and I think I'll go again next year if OAHS will still invite me to volunteer and sell the catnip toys.