Cassy and Shelby...in the car (almost awake at 7am) ready for "a ride."

Shelby getting excited as he sees many other dogs getting out
of other cars once we arrive at the parking lot.

We're here!

Stacy (Dian's daughter) with Cassy (German Shepherd/Golden mix).
and Shelby (Shetland Sheepdog or Sheltie as they are often called).

Lining up to turn in our pledge sheets. Stacy collected over $400 and
Dian managed to raise over $1200 to come in 5th on the Top Five list.

Cassy in her first "meet new doggie friends" challenge...
and a bit overwhelmed by SO MANY dogs!

And some of them are pretty strange looking!

But some of them look very similar to her!

Dogs of all colors...

...all sizes...

...all athletic abilities...

...and all capabilities...showed up to make the 5K walk
to raise money to help their brethren who are not as
lucky as they are to have a good home and loving families.

Speaking of loving families...here's some of ours.

Pose pretty

Not sure who has the longer legs?

Maybe this guy?

That's what Shelby SHOULD look like, but Shelby's colors got mixed up.<g>

Love the coonhound bark...or whatever you call that noise.

Stacy HAD to take pics of all the "Jack" look-a-likes.

(Jack is Stacy's American Eskimo [Eskie] dog.)

Hard to believe these guys came from the same original source. ;-)

Pretty Collie.

Lots of canines dressed up for the occasion.

And some needed a little help to get through the day.

Lots of butt sniffing.

(For the benefit of you non-dog people...a gland near the rear of a dog holds
their ID card details. One sniff and another dog can get all the info
he needs about another dog...including age, health, mood, social status.
It's not rude nor gross...it's data. Here Shelby is reading this dogs data ID!<g>)

Cassy wondering why they let sheep into this event?

A time to regroup and get settled after the registration doggie jam up.
We find an open area to get our act together...Shelby, Cassy and Dian.

Checking out our goodie bags, we have new shirts for the event.

The pups taking in the sights.

Time to line up for the walk. We decide it might be best for Dian to start
out the walk with Cassy, to make sure she can handle this new adventure.
Shelby says..."Sure, I love Stacy, but I thought I was going to walk with YOU, mom!"

Stacy convinces Shelby it is okay to walk with her and we start off.

THOUSANDS of people and THOUSANDS of dogs...such fun!

This guy was so cool. A VERY sweet dog, who I BELIEVE is a Newfoundland?
He was SO BIG and SO SOFT...his name is Tonka (like the truck!<g>).

My buddy, Linda Johnson, provided me with some additional info on Newfies..."Yes, that big guy IS a Newfoundland ... A Landseer Newfoundland to be exact. There was a guy a long time ago named Landseer who was a painter and he painted a lot of the black and white Newfoundlands (usually in conjunction with life preservers, seascapes and lighthouses), and that's how they got their name. When I was in the dog game, I worked for the oldest and largest Landseer Newfoundland kennel in the world (Seaward Kennels in Vermont) Generally, most Newfies are black, but there are also the Landseers and also chocolate newfs (which really do look like big ol' brown bears).

'Cuse me...I need to use this tree.

We were worried about rain earlier in the week...
but it turned into a PERFECTLY glorious day!

We round the corner and hit the beach!

ALL of the Chicago's Lakefront is public property so you can fully enjoy it...too cool!

Mom off to take the kiddies for a romp in the surf.

Okay, we have a technical glitch...Cassy always walks on the left
and Shelby always walks on the right...we've got problems here!

Totally tangled.

The sporting dogs are having fun!

Lots of pups stop for a fun break in the lake.

Shelby isn't quite the water dog, but Cassy loves it.
Too bad Lexi isn't quite ready for this event...SHE [a black lab] would go nuts in the water!

But Cassy is enjoying playing in the surf.

And meeting other dogs.

And tangling mom up again!

Many dogs are wearing their doggie Bark shirts.

Cassy (on the left) is enjoying the COLD water and dunking her head under it.

Thankfully, the leash is a 30 foot professional one, so she has room to
play without dragging mom in the water.

Cassy loves to shove her head under the water and flip it up
to shoot water all over. She was jumping and hopping around in it and
having a gas!

That's one happy, drippy, dog!

Shelby made it in a bit...but, obviously, not as much as Cassy.

How great! Before studying Cesar Millan's (The Dog Whisperer) techniques
for helping a dog become balanced and calm...Cassy would have NEVER
been able to handle a doggy hello confrontation like this! But now she
knows she needs to be cool, so this Dalmatian, who just ran up to say hi,
is no longer a problem. Cassy is still a GREAT guard dog, but she now understands the
difference between a threat and a casual hello.

You're a GREAT dog, Cassy. Filthy, wet and sandy...but a great dog!
And a happy one!

Water stop. Hinkley does a great job supplying lots of water to the walkers...
both human and canine ones.

What a great day for the walk!

I was worried some of these little guys would get stepped on!

As we round the path for the finish.

And what's a nice, scenic shot these days without a cell tower in it!<sigh>

We finish the walk and head for the pools!

Cassy can't wait to hit the pool.

Ahhh...a chance to cool your paws, get a drink and sniff a butt! What a day!

Another "Jack" look-a-like dog.

Cassy's digging up on it all.

"Having fun today, Cass?"

"Yup...I'm a happy dog!"

Another nice meeting that couldn't have taken place in the past.

Shelby's turn to cool his paws. He's not much for swimming,
but cooling his paws will help ensure he doesn't overheat on the ride home.

This American Staffordshire Terrier (Pit Bull) was so sweet and well trained...waiting for his snack.

One bark and it's his.

Now a time to relax and get some snacks.

And dog watch.

And did we say...relax?

And sniff?

And bask in the joy of a job well done!

Cassy and Shelby do a little basking themselves.

Two very good, happy dogs.
Let's hope we can work on Lexi to get her here next year!
(Lexi STILL has a major problem with meeting doggy strangers.)

Time for their snacks.

This little guy was SO CUTE AND SWEET!
I was giving Cassy and Shelby snacks when he came by and smelled the treats.
He stopped and his eyes said "Can I have some, too?"
What a cute, little face!

So we shared a few liver snaps with this sweet little guy!

Chilling out before we pack it up for home.

Time for some great photos of the canine team.

And some not to great ones of the humans. ;-)

But notice my cool doggie shirt! Created by dog artist
Debbie Stonebraker. Click the article link below for more info
about Debbie's fantastic dog art and where you can
get a shirt with your favorite dog or breed on it!
Debbie Did It

Great shot...of Dian's "kids"

HA...weiner dog!

Massive amounts of people and dogs...everywhere.

This guy's paying close attention to something.

Shelby photo shoot.

This was too funny.
As the mounted cops rode in...there was literally a WAVE of dog barking
flowing down through the crowd that got closer and closer.
At first we didn't know what all the commotion was about.
Then we saw the horses!
As each dog noticed these big guys, they were passing along the alarm!<lol>

Even the cops got a giggle out of the disturbance.

Pretty Brittany.

This little guy was near us...giving out his beagle howls as the horses went by.

A pug pic for Mikie.

There's always a few troublemakers in the crowd.

The doggie shirts were so cute.

And so was this big monster!

"Yup, I'm cool...I'm cool!"

Those are some pretty impressive jaws...that Frisbee is going DOWN!

Finally...a mountain dog!
I LOVE those faces. We saw lots of them last year, but this was the first/only one this year?
(Although I'm sure there were more that we missed in the canine masses during the day.)

Shelby gives a tentative hello to this big boy.

This guy was cute...he has a summer "lion" cut.
Shaved but for his head and tip of his tail.

HA...what a cute face...on them BOTH!

In fact, the dog in front looks a lot like Cassy when she was younger.

Goodies to buy for every dog...including "Bitch Magnet" shirts for dogs!<lol>

Look out...Security is here!

Ahhh...rawhides! Load up a bag of these for our pups.

Shelby decides to slip into the shot to also pick out his own munchies.
Not sure if this guy is gonna let Shelby near the box, however?

This guy has no problem picking out his own goodies...even those on the top rack!

What goes in...must come out!

Shelby has been working on some agility tasks, for fun. He's been learning
the weave poles at home. So we give it a shot on the free agility course
they have set up to let doggies give it a shot.

Granted, he can jump through hoops, but we haven't practiced the jumps yet...as you can see.

Shelby assumes his limbo trick is good enough!<lol>

"WAIT...I have an itch!"

This is how it's done, Shelby!

Dian tries to show Shelby how to jump up/over the hay stacks.
He'll have none of that and walks around them.<g>

Okay, we're beat...time to go home!

The tongue from hell!

And how are you doing, Shelby?

I'm gonna puke, mom!
(And, of course, he did...all over Cassy's butt in the back seat just before we got home!)

This is Stacy's new, rescued dog...Odie, enjoying a treat from Gramma (Dian).

And this is Jack! Stacy adopted him a few years ago.
He was older and she was worried no one would want him.
He's SUCH A SWEET dog (Eskie) who is now nearly completely blind and deaf...
but he's a happy and much loved dog...who now has a best pal in Odie!

Lexi gets her treats, too. She is a great dog, who is so funny and fun loving
but, sadly, not being socialized means she has a problem with meeting
stranger dogs. But we're going to work hard on that this year in the hopes
that she can join the pack next year at Bark. This year she stayed home with dad.

As for our heroes of the day...they're beat and totally crashed!

Yup, there's no waking these guys for a few hours!<lol>

But it was worth the effort. Thousands of less fortunate dogs and cats
will be able to be helped with needed medical care, housing and training...
so they can find loving homes like these guys have!