For the past 4 days, I've been living in alternate world. I took pictures, so you get to share that world with me!
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Every year for the past 36 years, I've helped out at the OU Medieval Fair in Norman, OK. It's part of the Parents Week activities for the University.
I've done nearly everything out there - measuring out booth spaces, jurying in vendors, setting up tents and booths, tearing them down and packing out, checking in vendors, troubleshooting problems, plugging broken water mains until the water company arrived, running electric cables, stuffing vendor packets, reseeding the grass, staffing the Info Booth and Fair Office, babysitting lost children and pets, hanging banners, sewing costumes for the Royal Court, running the Costume Contest, judging the Costume Contest, and more...
In 36 years, you get to do a lot.
Last year, I was allowed to put up and run the pet watering station, since for several years, the vendors who normally did that had retired and no one else came to take their place. So, I set up Water Paws:
This is last year's set up:
And this year's:
This is what the booth looked like at 6:00 pm on Thursday, 16 hours before the Fair began:
Look, look! The park put in doggie waste stations! I asked them to do that, and they did!
My view of the Unicorn Stage just 20 minutes before opening:
We had dogs of all sizes from this tiny darling just anticipating her dip into the water bowl:
to this large albino Great Dane:
We had dogs in tutus
and kilts:
Itzl was as happy to greet the Big Boys
as he was the tiny ones:
Itzl also decided he wants a new puppy. Every teeny Chihuahua puppy that visited Water Paws got his complete attention, and his wistful gaze as they left without becoming his puppy. There were other puppies that visited Water Paws, but they didn't hold his attention the way the Chihuahua puppies did. And the one little Yorkie puppy.
I took over 4,000 pictures (I won't inflict them all on you, at least not all at once!) with the camera someone gifted me (thank you!) and so I was able to take some rather good pictures, including this one of Harmless T. Jesterson doing his Flaming Fool Trick:
Considering he did this trick in a 40 mph sustained gust of wind, I'm rather impressed the torches stayed lit.
The whole weekend was windy (as ever), with a soft and gentle breeze of 20 mph most of the time, with gusts up to 45 and 50 mph.
Harmless T. Jesterson comes from good stock, here's his father performing at the OU Medieval Fair in the days before we knew there was a Harmless T. Jesterson:
Not only is Harmless T. Jesterson a chip off the old block - I think he's actually better than his father. It has nothing to do with the fact that he's cute and young, either. He's more creative than his father, and has added new acts. He still uses many of his father's tricks and the same jokes, but he's added many more of his own, including a unicycle and a set of cigar boxes. Plus, he mastered juggling with 5 balls. His father maxed out at 4.
There were cute little French Bulldogs. Itzl liked them, but wasn't as crazy about them as he was Chihuahua puppies.
I got a picture of one of the ferrets that came for water,
but totally missed the lemur! I mean, I saw the lemur drinking and totally forgot to take a picture. I also missed taking pictures of the Blue Macaw, the gray parrot, the snakes, and the iguanas. 4,000 pictures, and you'd think I'd get some decent ones!
I am a bad photographer.
However, I did get a picture of texasmom, who came with Mr. texasmom (no pic of him) - the only Kossack who revealed herself to me at MedFair the whole weekend. I don't know if this is because no Oklahoma Kossacks went to the OU Medieval Fair, they didn't want to meet up with me and Itzl (and Xoco on Friday), or there are no Oklahoma Kossacks, but texasmom was the only Kossack I saw.
There was one almost ugly incident with this dog:
The light brown one has fight scars all over his body and he showed aggression to almost every dog there. The owner had him under control but was somewhat careless about letting him get too close to other dogs at times. Fortunately, this dog never got more than verbally aggressive.
Physical aggression was left to a perfectly groomed black Scottie dog.
That dog was sitting all calm and quiet. Another dog and owner walked by and suddenly, the Scottie jumped and bit a hole in the mouth of the dog - a collie-type dog.
We got the bleeding stopped and I gave the collie's owner extra gauze in case it started bleeding before they got to the vet. The Scottie's owner had snatched his dog up and taken him quickly to their car. I learned later he'd tracked down the collie's owner and gave them information so he could pay the vet bill for the collie.
So, yay, happy ending!
This year was much cooler than last year, so we didn't have the quantity of dogs suffering from heat as we did last year. Only 5 dogs were treated for heat stress - and one person.
However, we did provide water for nearly 3,000 dogs, as well as a lemur, Blue Macaw, gray parrot, snakes, iguanas, ferrets, and a rat. No cats this year.
We are definitely doing Water Paws again next year.
And now, for your further entertainment pleasure, here are the marvelous Tops: Top Comments, Top Mojo, and the ever loverly Picture Quilt:
TOP PHOTOS
April 7, 2013
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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