This year’s Wienerpawlooza in my hometown of Ottawa was one of the best yet! It’s now become our yearly tradition, and this was the first year that I, Crusoe, was an official sponsor of the event.
And as a special treat, my brother Oakley came all the way to attend with me so that we could offer dual-pawtographed pictures from the both of us!
But of course, before we got there we had to start our day off right with a big bowl of Gorilla Munch – to grow big and strong!
So we got there bright and early to set up our booth.
You’ll also notice I am wearing a “#1” on my harness, and Oakley (although not seen here) was wearing “#2”. This was to help fans tell us apart and more easily follow us in the races, but also to subliminally infer I would be coming in first place in the race… ; )
And as soon as the event started, the fans began flocking!
Everyone was coming to get their own rare and one-of-a-kind pawtographed picture by both Oakley and I!
<Sidenote: the night before we got Oakley to practice a few pawtographs since he had never done them before. As it turned out, he isn’t a big fan of doing pawtographs… In fact, he was quite against the idea. So anyway, we knew we couldn’t rely on him to sign pictures the day of the event, so we had to steadily help him do all of his signatures the night before, leaving me to do mine live in front of the fans.>
So I waited patiently for the first fan to come ask for a live pawtograph by yours truly.
And finally I got my first one…
Which was then followed by many more!
It’s a good thing Oakley didn’t sign his that day.. because I don’t think he would have been able to keep up! (That’s why I’m the celebrity between us…)
Plus, between signing autographs I also had to take pictures with the fans!
Lots of fans!
Fans who came as far and wide as Toronto, Florida, and Texas!
In fact, I might go as far as to say we had the busiest booth there! But then again, most of the time I couldn’t see very far around us what with the crowd and all!
All was going well until one man came up to the booth and said, “hey, where’s Oakley?”
“What do you mean ‘where’s Oakley’?” I asked skeptically. “You’re looking at Crusoe right here!”
“Yes but Oakley is my favorite”, he said, and a look of abomination crossed me face…
I was not expecting that, and I must admit my ego has incurred a wound I don’t think I’ll ever fully recover from… So despite the fact Oakley preferred to fly under the radar for the most part, he did have to come out for quite a few photos.
And some even without me – which I was admittedly a bit jealous of.
But my spotlight was soon recovered when I was called over to judge the costume contest. I had three categories to choose from, and here were the winners;
Most Original Costume
…Was this coordinated group costume with a Wizard of Oz theme! There was the lion, the tin man, and the scarecrow, and the human was Dorothy!
Brilliant and well done!
Funniest Costume
Was this little girl carrying her hot dog stand. Because hey, what dachshund costume contest doesn’t have at least one winner with a wiener joke?
Cutest Costume
Then it was time for the cutest contest, and you might say I’m biased, but I just couldn’t resist choosing my lovely lady friend Gogo for her “Crusoe, let me be your Geisha” costume, what with the sign and all!
I can assure you no bribes were accepted while making this decision.
So in case anybody asks, her inviting me down to her Florida beach house for a week is of purely business matters…
The Wiener Races!
Now for the moment I had been waiting for all day – the races! And after strutting around with a “#1” written on my chest all that morning, I now had something to prove.
But before it started I did a few semi-casual strolls around the starting line while throwing the occasional flexing paw-lift (pretending to be looking at a bird or something), to subtly instill fear in the hearts of my competitors through my ripped and hardened physique which is similar to that of a Jamaican short distance runner.
In fact, the paw-lift is my version of Usain Bolt’s “shooting for the stars” pose.
So with the stars in my sights, I knew I was ready.
Mum held me on the starter line, while Dad stood across the finish line, squeaking one of my favorite squeaky balls.
It’s at this time that my cuckoo level (as Mum calls it) goes through the roof! Mum can barely hold me back by now, and people even later commented that I was the most crazy one on the starting block.
And bam! The races starts and I’m out of the gates!
While Mum cheered me on from behind. But of course, I was oblivious to her by now.
It’s safe to say I flew across the field!
Unfortunately Mum and Dad didn’t get too much footage of me seeing that they were a bit preoccupied, but a fan posted the below video of my race! (Mum is wearing the gray shirt)
So it may seem that I came in second according to that video, right? Well, as it turns out that fellow in front of me CHEATED! Yes, they were disqualified for being over the line and having an early start, so yes, I technically came first, and was to move on to the finals!
I wouldn’t have expected this sort of deceitfulness and dishonesty from a smooth haired dachshund!! A wire haired, yes, but not a smooth. UNLESS this smoothie was in cahoots with a wire haired… THEN this would make a lot of sense.
Heck, I saw a few roaming around, including this one dressed as a floozy.
At least I think it was a costume… but who knows!?
My suspicions were later confirmed when a random – honest – fellow came discretely up to me and whispered in my ear that they had seen that smoothie talking with a wire haired before the race!
(I thanked him for the tip-off and assured him his anonymity would be protected).
So consider wired hairs OFFICIALLY back on my radar… I’ll have to investigate this issue more another time though.
In the meantime, it was time for Oakley’s races!
I was impressed to see he was taking after me well – with that look of determination in his eyes as he was held on the starting block!
And I was cheering him on from right behind in Mum’s arms!
(Which by the way, she had a hard time keeping me there)
We didn’t get his on video, but he unfortunately didn’t win (but at least he didn’t crash into a wall). And I didn’t win my final either, as I got confused partway down the track as to where Dad was standing…
But all in all, it was an awesome time – because whether or not we won, we got to walk away with new squeaky balls!
Thanks for watching and cheering us on! And thanks to all the fans who came out to see us!
Until next year…
Keep racin’,
~ Crusoe
P.S. Don’t forget to vote for me as Best Video Post & Best Active Living Blog at the Petties.
P.S.S. Part 2 of my camping vacation continues next week!
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