don't poop on my parade

So today Bully and I marched in the Golden Days Parade. Golden Days is not a senior citizen festival, it's a three-day celebration of the founding of Fairbanks...gold rush, golden days, you get it. So anyway, yesterday friend Julie, who is the executive director of the Yukon Quest, phoned and asked if I would walk along side the Quest float with several other volunteers and their Quest dogs. Since Bull did the Quest this year with Regina (the musher I handled for) he was the clear choice for the parade. It was pretty funny actually. There were four of us walking with dogs and sled dogs typically are not used to walking on a leash so they pull really hard, which you don't really want to discourage them from doing because that's what they do: they pull. So there we were getting dragged down the parade route trying to hand out stickers and dog biscuits. You know, when I was a wee lass (shut up Kelly) a parade was about marching bands and clowns and a weird guy pushing a chicken in a baby carriage and the guy who shoveled up all the horse crap whom my mum oddly enough took the most pictures of. I guess I haven't been to a parade since I was little but today I was surprised to see children lining the streets not to clap for the band or throw stones at the guy with the shovel, but with bags open and begging for candy. It was worse then Hallowe'en. Back in the day if one of those clowns chucked a lifesaver at you, you considered yourself lucky, but today was ridiculous. Some appreciated the stickers but most were looking to score some sugar. When we ran out of stickers I started putting dog biscuits in the kids' bags. They could only see the next potential score so none really noticed. So the parade was fun. Bull enjoyed all the attention but for the most part ignored everyone. He pooped in the middle of the road and I had to clean it up in front of an audience who squealed with disgust. I left a little on the road so they could have that remembrance of us. He also stopped several times to clean his testicles (they say if you 'clean' for more than a few seconds you're not...never mind) And he was startled by a gaggle of wiener dogs that were on the float in front of us and by a pigmy goat. Who doesn't love a parade?!
Yesterday I watched several seagulls attack a bald eagle. It was crazy. Cim and Olaf got half the roof on yesterday and were supposed to come back today to finish it but didn't.
Anyway, until tomorrow.