Connie goes to preschool

Charlotte's preschool class invited the family pets to come to school last week!  Sounds like complete chaos, right?  Well, people were allowed to bring cats and other smaller animals in cages for the first bit of class, and then dogs came to the parking lot behind the school for a little dog show at the very end of class.

I opted NOT to bring the Pacey Cat and Rocky Cat because I was trying to get us packed and ready to leave for Illinois right after school, but I did bring Connie.  I tied her cutest pink scarf (the one NanaB made her to wear when Charlotte was born) around her neck so she would be looking her best.  I had no problem coaxing her into the Big Red Van.  For whatever reason, she has fallen in love with the van and tries to weasel her way in there every chance she gets.  Yes, that resulted in her accidentally getting locked in the van for several hours last fall, but it did nothing to tarnish her love for the van.

There were eight dogs waiting to meet the kids.  Things got a little hairy when one particularly squirrelly dog started mixing it up with some of the others, so I put my camera back into the car to avoid any DSLR mishaps.  I did get a couple of shots of Connie waiting patiently for her chance to get loved on by 23 little preschoolers.

The teacher called up each dog one by one and had the student introduce the dog, tell what breed he/she was, and the age of the dog.  I probably should have prepped Charlotte on the answers to those questions.  The kids were really impressed when I told Charlotte to tell them that Connie was probably about 10 years old.  They all said "ooooooooh!"  (I guess 10 sounds ancient when you just barely turned 5, huh?  She was the oldest dog there, actually.  One had been rescued from a box in a marketplace in China though, so Connie's Nashville roots didn't earn her any admiration.)  The teacher asked Charlotte if Connie did any tricks and Charlotte and I just laughed.  Um, no, unless you consider escaping from a sturdy crate a trick.  Then, we led each dog down the line of kids so they could pet them.  Connie seemed to like the attention, but she probably would have liked to have a little more time to sniff each kid in turn.

I had to giggle when one of Charlotte's teachers said "looks like Connie went to the groomer recently!"  I asked her if she meant that Connie had gotten the scarf from a groomer, and she said no, it was because Connie's coat was so gorgeous.  Ha!  I think Corey washed her with some dish soap a month or so ago, but other than that Connie hadn't been brushed in ages.  She just has a naturally shiny coat.

If Petey's class gets to bring pets to school when he goes to First Friends next year, I will try to bring at least Rocky in a cage.  Connie will definitely be coming back because she was such a good girl at this Pet Day.