Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Our first annual "Road Trip" event at Caras Park in downtown Missoula on Saturday was a great success!  We woke up to a drenching downpour and groaned, but by the time we got started at 10 a.m., the rain had finally quit and people started venturing outside.  The turnout actually exceeded our expectations, and the animals were a hit. The first photo shows the basic layout in the pavilion, which was a nice location for this kind of open, drop-in gathering.  We would have waves of people come by with lulls in between, and during one of the quieter moments I took the camera and shot these photos.

We had lots of people who met a disabled animal for the first time.  Here a father is explaining Travis’ condition to his little girl; our volunteer Mary Ann F. on the left is holding Travis.  Having a fused jaw didn’t keep Travis from being a real showman; he wanted to personally greet everyone who stopped in.

In this photo our volunteer Quincie A. is talking with a couple about wobbly Allie, who is laying at her feet.  Allie loved all the attention and had finally worn herself out by the time we closed up at 2 p.m.

We brought blind Lena and blind Nikki along, too, and folks loved meeting these girls — especially kids!  People were fascinated to hear about blind horses.  Our volunteer Vicky C. is on the left in the photo, and our horse trainer Nichole Zupan is standing next to the trailer at the rear.  You can’t really see this from the photo, but there’s a child in front of the woman wearing the red jacket, and Nichole is helping the child feed a handful of hay to Nikki.

And we also had two reunions with adopted dogs!  Susan S. brought blind Buddy (on the left) out to see us, and Neely V. brought Charlie.  Buddy was adopted only a couple of months ago, but we hadn’t seen Charlie in nearly a year. It was just great seeing these two wonderful dogs again.

We couldn’t have done this event without the terrific support from all of our volunteers — thank you so much!

(Click on photos for larger image.)