we love our dogs

Saturday night we trundled off to a small town in the southeastern corner of the county to celebrate our love for dogs. The local "New Leash on Life," formerly the county humane association, sponsored this fundraising event known as the Watertown Art Crawl. Local artisan shops hosted galleries of work by a variety of local artists featuring dogs, of course, and other works that might appeal to animal-lovers. Each of the sponsoring shops (four of them) offered hospitality by way of wine and nibbles, and one, a bakery, had lip-smacking offerings for sale, as well (see strawberry tarts, above).

I actually bid on a couple of pieces via silent auction, but was outbid by others. No harm done. One of them I would have given to my veterinarian friend in St. Louis, Caroline. The other was a nice, colorful rendering of four houses with a scriptural quote that would have gone in my office at the church. I guess my spare change can be hoarded in the jar in the bedroom for another month.

Events like this always inspire me. I feel moved to create something doggish that I can offer for next year's Crawl to help support the efforts of New Leash. I've got a year to work on it, after all! For now we're content to have supported a good cause and had a fun night out.