Pup Palooza! Little River Inn joins wave of giving guests with dogs chance for fun, games adoption
Pupapalooza! or Pup Palooza! It was Saturday sun, doggo buns and all kinds of other fun and games for more than two dozen, dogs but none left as happy as Daisy.
Daisy got adopted by a couple visiting the Little River Inn, which put on the event to help with dog adoptions. Puppalooza is a new marketing idea going around fine hotels as a way to provide dog-loving guests, their animals and rescue dogs with a unique kind of party. Daisy was brought by the Mendocino Coast Humane Society, one of two up for adoption brought and the one picked.
Daisy had only spent about a week at the shelter before she found what everyone hopes is her forever home.
Usually, there would be more options to adopt but logistics dictated just two this time. The guests I met during my few hour at the event thought Pupapalooza was a terrific idea.
“We have been coming to the Little River Inn for many years and love it. This was really over the top great,” said Jake, a retired engineer from Auburn who came with his wife and three dogs.
There was a dizzying array of activities. Brutus, Linda and I’s beloved boy GSD/Malinois had the time of his life and has a black book full of butts now to recognize should he ever meet Little River Inn tourists again.
What can people do who want to help the MCHS?
“We are a true nonprofit more money is what we always need but we also would love if when you go buy your dog a bag of treats that you buy a bag for us and things like that! You go to Costco and buy some bleach, buy a bottle for the Humane Society! Stuff like that,” said Executive Director Judy Martin.
Judy and her entire team at Mendocino Coast Humane Society work hard every day however they kicked even that into super high gear to pull off the first Pupapalooza event. – Their adoption center, veterinary clinic, and mobile adoption van serve 96 miles of beautiful Northern California coastline with the dedicated support of an animal-loving community and a committed team of staff and volunteers
Please support our Mendocino Coast Humane Society – check out adoptable animals and more ways you can help by visiting their website at https://mendocinohumane.org
The event went from 11-4 on Saturday but I had to go to work and left a little early. Three different things were going on at once on Van Damme State Park beach. There was a kayaking adventure bus, the one there all the time. There was also a big contingent of student scuba diver-scientists from Humboldt State University. I was delighted when the young man I interviewed called his school “Humboldt State” which was where I graduated from. I love the fact HSU affiliated and became Cal-Poly Humboldt GREAT but I don’t like that Facebook and others changed my graduation school name. I graduated from HSU!! He was nonplussed by this tirade and said he said HSU because so many people say “what?” when he gives the actual name of the university.
Please browse the photos if interested in the event and the winners in the contests.
Part of the contingent of divers who came down went to Caspar Beach where there was an urchin removal dive going on . A GREAT cause but they don’t really like their photos taken, so I stuck to this side. I had a long talk with a woman just getting going on her studies at my alma mater who loves birds and the oceans. They were interested in how many seabirds and shorebirds had come up to them while diving. “The behavior of many birds toward humans is probably evolving,” she said. She wasn’t part of the official group but had come along to watch.
Its challenging to find decent diving spots off the Humboldt Coast.
A captured a seabird, a pigeon guillemot that kept popping up and diving down among the divers. I got him in focus only the once. He even came up close to the shore seeming to check out the dog brigade. People grossly underestimate bird intelligence and adaptability. Dogs are adaptable. Brutus never rousts a bird while we are out. He manages the ducks, the old chickens, the great blue heron and all other birds, sometimes strict but never hurts them. If only I could get him to totally ignore the chipmunks.
The big fundraiser for MCHS is May 5. Please come out and support. Humane Society Fundraiser in Mendo
Elizabeth and Leslie (Humans) came with Hercules and Roquefort were second place in the dog-owner look-alike contest. Brutus made friends with Roquefort but Hercules was aloof and in charge. Second place in Best Dressed Rocky and Maddie “ the prom dates”. The doggos were Pomeranians dressed in a prom dress and the other one in a tuxedo.
Editor’s Note- The term Pupapalooza was coined around the country over the past three years to describe these events. Pupapalooza is the accepted spelling. It is also named Puppa Palooza or Puppapalooza and here it is being called Pup Palooza. The grammar fascists will have a field day with me on this. The language is uniquely American supposedly having originated with The Three Stooges describing any event as a Chickenpalooza or a Lollipalooza! Jane’s Addiction called their farewell tour Lollapalooza which has its origins in an archaic word from old English. Lollapalooza is also an annual Chicago music festival now. However, spelling varies among all these and grammar correctors are advised to take the Crisis Line number with them iff they decide to argue about this one.
The organizers and participants hope Pupapalooza can be an annual event.
