Chloe and I are going to participate in the Morris Animal Foundation K9 Cancer Walk on October 10, 2010!

Goals of the Morris Animal Foundation Walks:
The K9 Cancer Walk program raises funds and awareness for the Canine Cancer Campaign, which funds research that will develop prevention strategies, test new treatments, establish tools for cancer researchers and train new scientists specializing in cancer research. Participating in one of these walks is a great way to memorialize a beloved dog lost to cancer and create a brighter tomorrow for your current companion. By supporting the K9 Cancer Walk program, volunteers and participants help their best friends live longer, healthier lives.

Half of all dogs will be affected by cancer—but together, we can beat this disease.

The one on 10/10/10 will be located at the beautiful Vasona Lake Park, Los Gatos CA!

I am making a custom shirt for the event in order to walk for dogs affected by cancer : those that have been diagnosed with cancer, are cancer survivors, or who have lost their battle to cancer.  So far we have 60 names! The + indicates they have crossed Rainbow Bridge.  Check back in less than 2 weeks for photos of the event!

T shirt Front UPGRADE

So today was the BIG day!!!  Chloe and I walked for 60 other dogs (listed on the back of my shirt) at the K9 Cancer Walk in Los Gatos, CA! This event was hosted by the Morris Animal Foundation.

To Los Gatos: We had to take the scary 17 freeway full of winding, sharp turns, and people driving way to fast, so I wasn’t sure if we were going to even make it! However, this trecherous drive did have its silver lining or more like redwood lining…Since we are in Nor Cal, we got to drive through some wonderful redwoods along the 17! With the windows rolled down you could just smell the warm sun and the essence of redwood drifting through the air.  A mere 40 minutes later, we were in Los Gatos!!  Finding Vasona Park was rather easy and it was certainly a beautiful setting for a K9 Cancer Walk!

Walking in:  So at first we weren’t sure what kind of place this was exactly with clowns everywhere!  We then figured out it was for their team spirit… still kind of scary if you aren’t expecting it!!!

Checking in:  Chloe got a special bandana when we checked in!  It was a yellow one that said “SURVIVOR” because she is a cancer survivor!  I got a snazzy blue shirt!

Metting the other Tripawd Members: Chloe and I were getting ready to check out the booths (in order to get free stuff) when lo and behold, we saw some people wearing Tripawd Bandanas! It was Spirit Cherry’s family with their new poodle Avvy!  They told me that they might actually start calling her Chloe, so that would be cool!  Even though Avvy herself is not a tripawd, she walked for Cherry and all the other tripawds who couldn’t be there!  Avvy’s family told me that she will be getting her “big girl” cut soon.  No more snowball Avvy!!!  I have to say, she was quite soft!

The Pugapalooza:  Shortly after meeting with Avvy, we spotted another person sporting a Tripawd Bandana!  It was Karen with the pugapalooza!  Obie is the one sticking his tongue out and Tani is in the blue (Spirit Maggie’s sister).  So adorable those pugs!!  By the way, Karen was on the ready for spreading the word about the Tripawd website!  We spotted a pug with a left rear amputation and Karen was generous enough to give them a Tripawd bandana and a card to check out the website.  Now that is some good advertising!!!

We also got to meet Travis Ray at the GSD Rescue tent! I didn’t get to snag a picture of him because he and his owner were making rounds… However Chloe and I both got to meet him briefly and were glad to meet such a sweet dog!

Here is a movie of the Tripawds before the walk!

The procession of walkers!  Eek more clowns!

Chloe and I walking.

Chloe and Avvy walking.

After we finished the walk we met Honey’s family!  They were all very sweet and wanted pictures of Chloe and the back of my shirt (which has Honey’s name on the back).  Soon after, we got to meet the biggest tripawd we had ever seen, Cemil!!!  Here is a picture of the whole Tripawd Pack!

So we spent some time getting to know all the other people and doggies (in the shade of course!), which was awesome!  It really is nice to meet the people behind the doggie avatars… yes, they really do exist!  All in all, we had a great time walking for all the dogs listed on my shirt and we will be sure to do this again next year if they have it!  And did I mention that many people wanted to take pictures of Chloe?  She was quite the star at the walk!  Who can blame her, she is a cancer surviving Tripawd!!! And she’s adorable!  Lastly, we had a group of 8-12 yr old girls come up to Chloe to pet her.  One said “Awww, she only has 3 legs how sad…”.  I said, “No, not sad. Its a good thing because she is a cancer survivor and is cancer free again!”.  This seemed to do the trick since they immediately turned their frowns upside down and one exclaimed, “She’s soo cool!!!”.  Being a tripawd is nothing to be sad about!! It is something to celebrate especially if they are cancer free like Chloe!!!

But we aren’t done yet: Here is a picture of all the free stuff we got! Chloe will be stylin’ with all those nice bandanas!

This is what Chloe had to say about cancer: