Life on the Leash

Yee haw! It’s county fair season! We hit the Middletown Grange Fair on Sunday with Ma and Pa Schade and had a blast.

First stop - the “Hot Dog Pig Race.” Now, when I read about the event I had visions of 4H-ers racing their pigs using a hot dog on a string as a lure. I’m there, baby!

The reality was disappointing:

It was a slickly produced pig race that travels from fair to fair, with racing pigs and “hot dogs”:

I didn’t enjoy the event … all I could think about was animal welfare issues. And speaking of animal welfare issues … a local seeing eye dog training group did a demo and it made my heart sink. Why?

This is why:

The amount of unnecessary choking going on in that ring was revolting. Three steps, CHOKE! “Sit, Fido, sit,” CHOKE. I watched for about five minutes then I got up and left. The bummer was that I had a front row seat and my departure looked very rude. I just couldn’t stomach it.

Despite all of that unpleasantness, I did manage to have a good time at the fair. There was tons o’ cuteness:

Square dancing seniors? Cute.

(I never realized how confusing square dancing is, with all of that, “chain down the line … single hinge …peel off … girls circulate” stuff the caller shouts out.)

Tom made me take a picture of these “snow balls”:

Then I started seeing them everywhere!

We left with tractor and cow-decorated commemorative t-shirts. Ah, country livin’!