The Big Birthday Bash

Long Dogs WA turned 10 this year and to celebrate we had cake. Oh, and a party. And we raised money for dachshunds in need while we were at it because that's just the kind of community we are.

Being able to do that was a close run thing this year.  If it hadn't been for some quick thinking, good contacts and a man with a big mower we wouldn't have been able to see the weiners from the weeds.

With a manageable patch beaten into relative submission we were able to go ahead and we paced, paraded, passed, purchased, postulated and partook.


We may also have handed out quite a bit of cream to treat bull ant bites*.

The dachshunds had a run in in the grass, proving suprising agile over the tricky terrain. There was one late scratching form the last race but we expect Bear to be back in the running for next year.



Our novelty events this year included the fastest eater competition. Elmo took line honours, and his plate was scrubbed clean, without a single morsel wasted.

 Our youngest competitor, Leonard, faced with the same serving size as the other competitors, finished every scrap on his dish and came up licking his chops.  A fine for effort young man.

It was a bit warm in the sun so the music man kept the tunes pacy as we played pass the parcel with the young and the young at heart. Every layer had a prize and a lot of people seemed to win more than once. Full points to everyone for helping us keep it clean, figuratively and metaphorically.

There were some amazing costumes again this year. It's great to see some imaginative choices and some true artistry in their creations. With the theme of 'When I grow up I wanna be...' our winners included Izzy the detective, a cowboy (well technically a horse being ridden by a cowboy), Peanut the nurse, and a beautiful Flower Fairy.

Other contenders included Mona, the exotic dancer, a king or queen who may or may not have been called Chester, an I Dream of Genie look-a-like, a fireman, a builder, a pilot, a life saver, a few fruits, some West Coast Eagles players, Superman AND WonderWoman, a couple of witches, a hotdog, a bumble bee and Minnie Mouse. Oh, and a fair number of nudists (dogs not people) in the crowd as well of course. More a lifestyle than a career, but whatever floats your boat.

We were sorry to hear that Madonna left before the fashion parade ( I guess we should be thankful she turned up on time to our event). We hope to see young Scout in that costume some other time.

The photo booth photos will be coming out soon. Those of you who used the booth would have placed a guess about he number of jelly beans in the jar. Young Darcy was our winner, and was just one bean off the actual number!  I see a bright future in Insurance Adjustment of statistics for that young man.

Throughout the day our stall holders had a range of wares for sale, and the Coffee Man Joe kept everyone caffeinated while the canteen crew kept the food coming.

To finish off of course, the cake, made by our hard working Jane and Jonnine. It came in all three coat types and different flavours and was deemed delicious by all.

The stats

We had 530 people and 280 dachshunds through the gate on the day.

We raised over $6000

We collectively picked up just about every bindi in the meadow - you're welcome!

The Honour Roll

Organising and running one of our events is not for the faint hearted. Many of them were up at dawn on the day of the event. Well, maybe around seven, well, maybe seven thirty, and some stopped for a coffee, but don't forget all those late and sleepless nights...  Anyhoo, it wouldn't be remotely possible without the hard work of a dedicated team.

Your Long Dogs executive;

Jo, TJ, Sary, Chiara and Jane

The general committee;

Diane, Kaye, Sharleen, Penny, Sarah, Kingsley, Jess, Debbie, Mike, Vince & Andrew

Our sponsors, supporters and major donors;

Bassendean Pet Food Supplies - provided the great competition prizes as well as samples during the day.
Peter White - creator of the magnificent rocking dachshund
thedogproject
Jess Zainudin from LickaSticka
Sara Meese
Francis Curtis and Diane Dick with the gorgeous plush dashies
Sherylee Tutt
and many more...

Special mentions;

Kahukerra Terry - the artist for this years' photobooth
Campbell Jackson - the mowing man from Southgates Mowing and Slashing Services who turned the grass jungle back into a meadow, if not an ant and bindi free meadow.  The impossible, as they say, does take a little a longer after all.
Jane and Jonnine for the amazing 10th birthday cake
Penny and  Diane for wrapping up the pass the parcels so nicely
Jess, Penny and Diane for pinning the elastic on a squillion birthday hats. I understand Penny has filled her swear jar at home getting these in order.

The Volunteers without whom nothing would be possible;

At the IVDD table- Saint Sary and her angels, Justine, Nik, & Melissa - supervised by Ginger and Milo
At the sales and Dachshund Rescue tables - Jo, Sheila, Tammy and Steven
In the canteen - Chiara, John, Kaye, Diane and Vince
At the up-sell and registration desk - Jane
At the gate your greeters rattling the tin were Mike, Mawghan, Lauren, Linda, Stephen, Jacqui, Peter, Ian & Jocelyn
At the photobooth - the lovely TJ, multi-tasking this year by keeping an eye on the jelly bean jar
The man on the mike was Kingsley
and I was there too chasing dogs with the camera and playing time keeper
On the ground our shangahied guest judges - thank you for being good sports
Bec and Ben pushing the Snack Mobile

Stall holders;

Jess and Sharon - Le Reve
Coby Staples - Airbonne
Josephine Aquilla - Jewels by Josephine
Jess Zainudin - Licka Sticka
Haylie Worthington - Puppy Antix
Dalish - Milan Pietracatella
Penny Hodgson - Canine Restoration
Courtney Roberts - Fletcher and Frankie
Sherry Smith - Doormat Artistry
Dana Burton - Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
Verity Clare - Pheonix Trading
Joe - Wizard Coffee

With so many people on our thank you list, and with all our organisers still recovering from the event, it is possible (even likely) that I have forgotten to thank someone - I usually do and it is due o incompetence not malice.  If we've missed you out, please do let us know so we can recognise your efforts. We really do appreciate all of your support, but our memories can fail us, increasingly so as we age.

For more photos, visit our online gallery and our facebook page.

We will be considering alternate venues for our event next year, so if you're in the know and have a place in mind with ample parking for 200+ cars, toilets, kitchen facilities, power and a bit of space for a few hundred dogs, drop us an email at longdogswa@gmail.com so we can add it to our list of places to check out.