5 seconds of fame

Looks like this week is turning into an all dog theme.  I took the dogs up to college for the last two football games. No, not to the games, but to our camping spots on campus. My brother and I have reserved spots on one of the parking lots where we camp out in our trailers. Football at A&M is serious business. Our little stadium can hold a few fans (stated capacity is 83,002) but we’ve been known to exceed that number by a few bodies. Football weekends are a massive phenomenon starting with various events on Friday nights and culminating in the game on Saturday afternoon/evening. We’ve been doing it for years since my brother’s oldest son went to school (long since graduated). It’s become our weekend tradition during the fall. The RV slots on campus are hard to come by and have sold out for years, so we tend to make full use of the sites every home game.  

Water dogs

Anyway, the dogs like going out camping in the trailer. To them, it is another adventure. I’ve been taking my dogs up to the games since we had Shadow and they have a blast. Two weeks ago, I took them up for the weekend and there was a charity walk being held at the Veterinary Center (A&M has one of the best Vet schools in the nation). The Vet school was opening a new Cancer Center for animals and to commemorate the event, they held a 3/5k Walk to collect money for cancer research BTHO (Beat The Hell Outta) Cancer Pet Walk or Paws to the Pavement walk. I have always been a sucker for 5ks and figured the dogs like to walk so, I signed us up. Was kind of weird – I’m used to participating in these kinds of runs with lots of runners and warming up before the start, but not when you have the same number of dogs as people. Big dogs, small dogs, skinny dogs, fat dogs, tall dogs, short dogs, shaggy dogs, hairless dogs, purebreds, mutts. Not sure who had more fun - the 2 legged or 4 legged participants. When the starting cannon sounded (note to organizers: you might want to rethink the idea of having a cannon signal the start of a DOG event), everyone hit the trail. Good walk. Some ran, some walked, and some peed. I wasn’t sure how Claire would handle the walk since she is a wee bit old and heavy, but Grayson wanted to run the course. Was a bit hot at the time so at the 1.5 km mark they had water bowls and a kiddie pool for the dogs to drink out of.  Of course, guess which dog had to lie in the pool?   Both dogs made the course fine, if not a bit hot. We got to see both Reveille VII & VIII (A&M Mascot) and there were lots of pictures taken. That’s where the story should end, but there’s an interesting addendum.

BTHO Cancer Walk

Reveille VII & VIII

I left the dogs with my parents (they don’t make it into the games anymore) and went up to the stadium. Scored a really good seat on the 20 yard line in the 2nd deck. Typical A&M game – lots of noise, big crowd, mucho excitement. Throughout the game, they post pictures on the giant video scoreboard (12Man TV) – a monstrous 75 ft x 55 ft TV screen on the south end of the field. The kind of screen you could sit back in our trailer (1/4 mile away) and watch the game. In between broadcasting the plays, they normally post up various factoids and activities and the occasional sponsor (hey, somebody’s got to pay for that screen). In the middle of the 3rd quarter, they start showing things around campus like – student activities, sports, different schools, current events. One of the events shown on the big screen was the BTHO Cancer walk held that morning. Among all of the shots taken of Reveilles, runners/walkers/dogs, up pops this shot of a golden dog with the bright yellow bandanna around his neck walking. Took me a few moments to recognize that it was a good 5 second close up of Grayson on a 50 foot screen. No sign of Claire or me. Everyone else saw him told me about if after the game. He’s famous now. Great. One more thing to give him a big head.

Today we are headed out to the Golden Beginnings Golden Retriever Rescue annual picnic. This is the 12th picnic and a chance to see all the old GBGRR alumns. We are expecting 250-300 Goldens plus a few people. Pretty impressive display of fur. Pictures to follow.



GBGRR Picnic 2010