PawsWalk: A Seattle tradition for 18 years. Paws, the Progressive Animal Welfare Society hosts a fundraising walk through Seattle’s Magnuson Park. Rob, Scott and I participated this year and plan to make it a family tradition. Rob had a blast and I was surprised by how calm he was. In fact, all the dogs were polite and well behaved. Now I realize that people probably only bring polite dogs to an event like this, which is why we never brought Freya, but it seems to me that the fact that we were all moving in the same direction as a pack really made a difference. When the dogs were milling around they were pretty “doggy” but once we all started walking, they were very focused. A double row of volunteers were standing at the finish line clapping for each dog who had completed the course. I was going to bypass the gauntlet but Scott nudged me and said to take Rob through. He was right! The volunteers started clapping and waving at him and he positively pranced to the water bowls at the end of the corridor.  Next year, I think we’ll form a team and see if we can get some more donations. Paws announced that they had more than 1500 walkers, most with dogs ( they don’t list how many dogs) and the final dollar-count is not tallied yet but as of today they’ve raised $185,000.

Hope to see you there next year!