We had a sunny, crisp day for our 4^th Annual Walk ‘n’ Wag All Breed Dog Walk Fundraiser, held on October 3, 2004 at Borderland State Park.   Everyone had fun on the group walk.  After returning from the walk,  our demos began.  Freestyle (doggie dancing) was a lot of fun to watch  - handler and dog in rhythm to music.  We’d like to thank our Freestyle and K9 demo volunteers.  We appreciate Officer Tim Keefe of the Dover NH Police Department taking time out of his busy schedule for us – it was a long drive from NH.  K9 Norman (a gsrne rescue dog) was awesome finding drugs in and around the car!  I hope everyone had a chance to stop by Pam Devlin's "working dog"  table to check out info and read about K9 Norman.  Click on the link “Working Dogs” on our home page to find out more info on the Working Dog Program. 

Our favorite part of the day was our Rescue Parade – dogs that have been placed through gsrne are invited to be in the parade.  They received personalized medallions.  Each dog and their family walked around our activity area as their story was read.  It’s so wonderful and gratifying to see how happy and healthy these dogs are now.

The Canine Good Citizen Test was going on all day – thanks to Terry Haskins (www.thedogbutler.com) and his volunteers.  The dogs that passed are listed here.  Congratulations!

Debbie Wiebe with Morgan, 10 yr. male Doberman

Deirdre Zaccagnini with Sadie, 7 yr. female Rottweiler

Deirdre Zaccagnini with Farley, 1 yr. 10 mos. Rottweiler Mix

Jill Cuddihy with Sterling (gsrne rescue dog), 1 yr. 4mos.GSD

Martine Meijering with Edgar, 8 yr. Mix Breed

Natalie Leva with Casey, 2 yr. 6 mos. Golden Doodle Mix

Janice Huntley with Denali, 1 yr. 6 mos. German Shepherd Dog

Karen McCall with Wendy (gsrne rescue dog) 8 yr. female GSD

There were plenty of booths surrounding our demo area; to name just a few:  vendors selling T-shirts; personalized embroidery;  doggie biscuits;  other doggie stuff;  “Paws in Motion Veterinary Rehabilitation Center,” (www.pawsinmotionvet.com );  and rescue organizations.  I’m sure some of you did a lot of shopping.  We also had nice items for sale at our ‘gsrne’ table and a raffle table with many items to choose from.  We’d like to thank everyone who donated these fantastic raffle items!

Greyhound Rescue was our food vendor again and we are so grateful to them; their food is always delicious. 

Donna Joseph, GSRNE Photographer, assisted by 15 year old volunteer Jessica, managed a portrait photography booth and for just $5.00 per sitting, twenty-one people had their dogs photographed that day for 29 dogs total and 1100+ pictures were taken.  This does not include the event photos that were taken by the rest of the photo team, new volunteers, Trisha Cooney, Joyce Gauthier and Jeannie McMahon.  Patrons of the photo booth will be able to order prints and cards.  We are hoping to eventually offer other photo gifts such as calendars, mouse pads, mugs, and buttons.

We had a fun 'photo contest' and the winning photos will be posted shortly.  There were six winners: 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and three “Honorable Mentions.”  They received ribbons and first place also received a prize.   The theme was "a face that tugs at the heartstrings" and we received some adorable photos.  It must have been very difficult for Fran and Mike to judge, but they did a great job!

Photo contest winners are here! Check them out..

Speaking of Fran and Mike, their 11 year old daughter, Dakota, offered (on her own) to bake doggie biscuits and sell them with all the proceeds going to gsrne. Wasn't that sweet of her?   All the dogs loved the bones – there were even different flavors -- and they were packaged really nice.  Thank you Dakota!! 

Thank you to EVERYONE involved in the dog walk: the Planning Committee, volunteers that helped throughout the day, raffle (and other) donors, all the people that helped us in many other ways -- check out our original ‘dog walk page’ on the website (click “events”) for more info on some of the people who contributed - please excuse us if we didn't include you - you can email us and we’ll add your name asap.  It was a wonderful, FUN day - the weather was perfect - there were plenty of tables to browse through - and maybe get some shopping done?  It was great to see everyone with their dogs - lots of beautiful German Shepherds, cute puppies, and we are happy to say there were some other breeds/mixed breeds represented - we love that!

Most of all, we thank everyone who collected pledges to help our rescue

dogs!!!

**Next year’s walk will be on Saturday, October 1, 2005.**

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