The Celebration of the Animals and the Pumpkin Fund walk! Even though it rained a little bit, it was a great time filled with love and appreciation for our pets and companions. Bailey and Max saw the leashes come out and knew it was time to get in the back of the truck! They always get so excited to go for rides and they were running back and forth all the way to Gansevoort so afraid that they might miss something on one side or the other :p When we got to the benefit I realized that I had only grabbed one of the leashes so my father had to make a makeshift leash to fill in for Max. It can be seen in various pictures as a cable used to hold things onto the back of cars haha. Chelsea was at the registration table and I stopped to talk with her for awhile. She is so dedicated to her platform and to the Miss America Program which I really appreciate about her. It is really nice to have someone with the same platform who cares about these issues as much as I do. I am very excited for this year and to see her title. She will be competing in Miss Finger Lakes on February 16th which is her grandmother's birthday so it has to be a sign! She is everything a titlehold should be:)I had a little difficulty getting the picture of her and I to save to my computer so I copied and pasted it. It isnt very clear lol I was very impressed with the event as a whole! There were a lot of different vendors and stations set up for cat adoptions. The cats were very well taken care of and kept out of the rain. They each had a description of their background, dislikes and likes. Three were adopted that day!

The walk began and we all made a big circle around the field and then around the firehouse. My uncle Dean made an appearance with his dog "Toby" which was a nice surprise!

When we got back from the walk it was time to bless the animals! a catholic priest came and splashed holy water on the animals to bless them and it was really sweet :) Max kind of looked at him strangely as if to say "What did you just do to me?" It gave me a laugh lol. Chelsea's godson and his brother came over to talk to me about their two black labs "Libby" and "Sam". You could tell they loved their dogs very much and they were so excited to tell me their stories. I told them that Bailey and Max are very much like Sam and Libby in that they are best friends and love eachother very much :) They are animal rights leaders of the future! Especially with such an amazing family of animal lovers to grow up in!

Bailey and Max began to get very tired out and so we waited for the raffles to end and I thanked Chelsea and her mother for a great time! We got some nice pictures with Bailey and Max and then we headed home with two exhausted dogs! Tanis Brumagen is such an amazing lady. She wrote the story of Pumpkin who she named the organization after in a book and as I read it, it was difficult not to cry. To imagine all of the things she went through with Pumpkin and having to go through it with your own pet. I am grateful to know such a loving and compassionate family!