Puppy on parade

Alex visited our vet last week for the first time.

As the vet and the tech sat on the floor with treats in hand,

doing their friendly best to convince her to come over to them,

Alex sat perfectly still in the corner, going nowhere, expressionless

(except for the permanent resting worried face). 

It was then that the vet strongly suggested that Alex get out soon and

meet people, like a hundred of them, and socialize. Ugh. Not my idea of fun.

But I appreciated the vet's advice and knew it had to be done

in order for Alex to become a well-balanced canine,

so my weekend goal was to find a bunch of people,

introduce Alex to all of them, get it over with and go back to the hermitage.

 

As it happened, Mountainair was having its Independence Day parade on Saturday –

 not our favorite place, but the event ticked all the boxes for Alex's debut. 

We arrived a short while before it started, and I parked the truck 

at the beginning of the half-mile-long parade route, 

which was lined with a whole bunch of people. 

My plan was to walk down one side of the street and back the other

and meet and greet anybody who approached us and said "what a cute puppy!"

I think we met everybody in town.

Alex was the Best Puppy Ever. I'm not kidding.

She proudly walked on her leash, sat down when I asked her to,

and let herself be pet and loved on by kids and adults.

She wouldn't approach people on her own but was more than fine

with them coming over to her. I explained that it was puppy socialization day,

and the friendly townspeople were happy to help me convince Alex

that humans other than me can be good things.

Then we sat down to watch the very loud parade, which consisted of five fire trucks/ambulances

all blowing their sirens, a dozen or so antique vehicles all blowing their horns, 

three horses, a couple of floats...

...and two patriotic donkeys.

Alex was less than impressed.

If she wanted to watch two donkeys walk by,

she could have stayed at home.

She perked up when the dinosaur rolled by...

 

...and held out hope for a marching band, to no avail.

Alex: Lamest parade I've ever seen.

Can we go home now?