FidoFest

Upcoming Events!

Hello Basil fans! Happy hump day! So many awesome events are coming up soon, we are getting really excited. Also, Basil’s Travels 1 year blog anniversary is on August 25th! I can’t believe it was been a year already; so much has happened!
We are going to be celebrating this milestone at the Pints for Paws event at Noda Brewing Company next Thursday August 28th. If you are in the Charlotte, NC area and would like to hang out with Basil and donate to some good causes make sure to swing by.
Check out all the events below and mark your calendars! All events are dog friendly!Happy dog!

Pints for Paws
August 28th 5pm -8pm
Noda Brewing Co.
2229 North Davidson St. Charlotte, NC 28205
Bring your dog and a bag of dog food to donate to the Spay & Neuter Clinic of Charlotte. Brewery tours, raffles, and prizes.

WoofStock 2014
September 13th 1pm
Amos Southend
1423 S Tryson St. Charlotte, NC 28203
$5 donation

Furry 5k
October 11th
WakeMed Soccer Park Cary, NC
Check here to register and for more details:
http://www.secondchancenc.org/2014furry5k/

If you aren’t in the Charlotte area and are looking for some dog friendly events try hitting up BringFido.com and searching your area.

I’ll be posting photos from all the events as they happen and I’ll be adding more events to this list as I hear about them. If you know of any events that I’m missing make sure to leave them in the comments below!

Travel well, nap well, live well!

-Abbey & Basil

More Love, Less Hate!

This is the story from last Friday, Basil’s favorite BlogPaws day.

Friday was the day of new friends, famous and otherwise. We got to met Tillman, the skateboarding English bulldog as well as Manny the frenchie, of Instagram stardom. This day was only made better by the meeting of a new (“average joe”) friend, Jake. Basil and Jake Blogpaws 2014

We met Jake, a 10 month old pit bull terrier/mastiff mix at a social networking event at BlogPaws. The event was full of people, dogs, food, and drinks. The whole thing was centered around a off leash dog park. The dogs could “mingle” while the people could also mingle.

We got our snacks and starting searching the area for a shady space with friends and chairs. Basil, Nate, and I rounded a corner and found what we were in search of. A few people had also found this little oasis and were grouped together on the lawn. I spotted a set of chairs free next to a women and her dog, Jake. We quickly move to meet them and have a seat.

Basil and Jake hit it off almost instantly! They shared the same high level of energy and love of laying in the cool grass. Jake’s mom and I chatted while these two “wild bucks” ran circles around us and each other. I learned that they were at the conference working for the sponsored PetSmart booth and was giving out information about their pet adoption program.

We talked and they played and I started to notice something. Some people (This was not everybody! Just a few!) were making an extra large arch when passing the two hooligans. I found that strange because usually no one can avoid Basil cuteness/charm. I mentioned this to Jakes mom and she told me that she has come a crossed a few people in her short time with Jake that said they didn’t want their dog around Jake because he is a ” big, scary pit bull.” Now I can understand being worried for your dogs safety and looking out for warning signs, that is just being a good pet parent, but just to make a judgement solely based on the dogs breed is not cool.

This is breed discrimination and unfortunately it is a big problem. The idea that some dogs are just “born bad” is wrong. All dogs are born good and can be taught to be a good dog or a bad dog. Any dog, not just pit bulls, can be aggressive and can attack. I found a great website called BadRap.org. Check out all the information that can be found over there. It really did open up my eyes to how bad this problem really is.

So, next time you see a pit bull walking down the road, on a leash of course, with that goofy smile and not a care in the world, maybe stop and talk to the owner. Ask if you can say hello and give the pup some love. I can tell you that Jake was just a love-bug. His smile was  contagious and he was as sweet as can be with Basil.

We had a blast at BlogPaws and we wanted to thank everyone that we met while we were there! I’ll be posting a lot more photos soon so make sure to check back.

Travel well, nap well, live well!

-Abbey & Basil

 

FidoFest 2013 – Historic Southend Charlotte

This last Saturday we woke Basil up “super” early, like at 8am, for a great cause. We headed down to the Historic Southend Charlotte neighborhood in some seriously heavy fog to walk in the 3K 2X4 FidoFest! The Southend neighborhood is an area of Charlotte that we haven’t spent a lot of time in but once I learned that 80% of Southend residents are dog owners we knew we needed to spend some more time there. 

This walk, where the proceeds go to CMPD Animal Care & Control, took us down the light rail line and let us really enjoy this little gem of a neighborhood. Great, clean walking paths passing by luxury apartment buildings and condos. A lot of chic shops and restaurants sprinkled in between. 

On our walk we meet a lot of new friends, like a giant 7 month old great dane that kept trying to make his poor mom “win” this 3K walk! Along the way there were stop off spots for water and goodies. Basil picked up his fair share of dog treats and poopy bags while we got a lot of information about living in this area. One of the spots that was handing out swag was Club Fetch. They are a soon to be opening doggy daycare and play center. We loved their logo and then got to meet the face behind it, Jackson. Basil loves meeting fellow adorable Boston terriers and for the short time they got to sniff each other they totally hit it off. Once they open we will for sure be checking this place out and we recommend if you are in the Charlotte area you do too! 

Once we finished up the little under 2 mile walk it was party time! FidoFest had set up booth after booth of sponsors offering their wares and giving out even more swag. There were also food trucks and a dog house contest. The one dog house that stood out above them all was the one made by Balfour Beatty Construction. This incredible handmade dog house is up for sale currently on eBay and the proceeds will go to Coalition to Unchain Dogs. Head over to eBay to check it out!

We had some serious fun and couldn’t have had a better time. A big thank you goes to FidoFest for really introducing us to this little spot and putting on this event. I made sure to start following them on twitter so I can keep up with the goings-on of the Historic Southend. Can’t wait for the next event!

Travel well, Nap well, Live well!

-Abbey & Basil