London Pride, June 2016

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Dec 272016
 

The 25th of June saw me participating in this year’s London Pride, leading the mixed walking group featuring Puppy Pride & Pup Social. This year, I was again accompanied by Caz and Wayne from E-Stim Systems, with Caz holding my lead while Colin was taking photographs.

With a change in starting point this year, we had to find our way to a different station on the Underground. As we were getting in to the lifts at Regent’s Park, a member of the public in the queue behind us recognised me from the TV documentary, so while waiting on the lift, and travelling up, we had a chat about pup stuff. Part of the reason for being so early was there had been a change in system this year, and walkers were to be issued Wristbands by the group organisers, so we arrived early to pick up our wrist bands.

Next on the agenda was to go and get some water and snacks for the duration of the wait and the walk to make sure we didn’t dehydrate etc. as we were walking around. As we wandered off to get a drink and a bite to eat in the nearest cafe, I was stopped on the way by someone who recognised me from the TV documentary again.

We assembled at the new starting point, and like usual, we waited… and waited… and waited. Eventually, the group set off down the road following the rest of the parade participants. Much like normal, this was very stop & start, but during the time a number of people watching at the sides kept recognising me and shouted at me, and that lasted the whole route.

As we finished, we gathered for a whole group shot of the pups that had participated, and it was at this point the sheer volume of pups & handlers that had participated became apparent with the size of the assembled group!

After goodbyes were said, we retired to town and Five Guys with me still in my pup outfit – it’s just a shame the O2 store I went in to had stopped the “Be More Dog” campaign!

London Pride – 2015

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Jul 212015
 

Sorry this has been delayed, it’s been a hectic few weeks doing lots!

Saturday 27th June saw the London Pride parade taking place, and this puppy was out walking. Unlike last year, the weather was a little nicer – with glorious sunshine and warm temperatures compared to the rain of last year.

We set off from home, with the intention of getting the train and that I’d travel in as a pup… which meant I had to change in the station car park and then board the train *wags*. I’d decided that, as much as I wanted to do full hood and paws, this was probably not a sensible idea due to the heat.

The puppy assembly point was near the o2 “Be More Dog” bus which meant the opportunity for a photo was just too tempting.

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After the picture wast taken and before the walk, I went off to find a tree – 25 minutes later standing in a queue, I hadn’t had the chance to use one so I had to come back to assemble for the parade, and get fully kitted up. Then we waited… and waited… and waited.

During the waiting period, someone threw me a bag of chocolate buttons, which I tore my way in to, but unfortunately, the heat had got the better of them and they’d just turned in to a big chocolatey puddle 🙁 *whine*

Eventually we got a chance to set off, but progress down Baker Street was quite slow – with lots of stops and starts, so I was alternating from 4 legs to 2 legs, and due to the heat, I curled up lying down on the road, as it was too hot to be on all-4’s

We then turned on to Oxford Street and everything started moving that little bit quicker, and again, I was alternating from 4 to 2 legs – barking all the way.

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Somewhere down Oxford Street, we gained a blow up football which a few of the pups started playing with at various slow points during the route – for some reason, it seemed to keep re-appearing with us even if we ended up throwing it in to the crowd! *wags*. I also found a cardboard tube, which I was using as a big stick, chewing my way through it … but after a while, I gave it to another pup, who put it down 🙁 … A different blow up beachball got thrown at me, which I went to pick up with my mouth, as all good pups should do, but it went flat … *puppy eyes* it wasn’t me … … honest!

The rest of the walk was uneventful, to one extent – with a lot of walking and barking – with the heat making it slightly unbearable at times! This also meant that I had to keep alternating between being on all 4s or walking on 2 legs. A fun but hot parade making myself known to the crowds 🙂

After the parade, we did a few photos then went to join the rest of the pups in a nearby park for a quick lunch. After a quick bite to eat, I got re-pupped up to head for Nandos with my hood and paws, when a small ball arrived at my front paws. It came from a small child who was shouting happily ‘dog’ at their mum. i bopped the ball bck, whereupon it got thrown back to me with a happy ‘dog’ from the child. A photo with mum and the tot followed, before heading off for Nandos. Both Marbles and I rode the tube as pups, sitting in front of the door much to the amusement of other passengers.

After the Nandos, I headed home, on the train, fully dressed up as Spot… we took a stopping service so that there’d be quite a few people getting on and off the train, but it actually turned out to be remarkably quiet 🙁

Yet again, another fantastic day out – and with more pups than previous years as well.

And here’s a pic of all the pups that attended from @lonchastitysub 🙂

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*wags*
Spot

London Pride 2014

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Jun 282014
 

Today saw the Annual London Pride Parade and this pup was part of it, courtesy of Puppy Pride organising the walking group. So this morning, I sorted out the outfit, and as an added twist I included my E-Stim Systems Remote Box. There was a reason for the Remote Box though … Caz from E-Stim Systems was going to be my handler for the day so that my owner could take pictures.

Due to a slight delay at home, we got off a bit later than planned, but still with enough time to get there before the Parade started. En-Route, we met with Caz and Wayne and carried onto Baker Street. … A quick loo stop and snack and then down to meet the rest of the group. Once with the rest of the group [too many names to remember to list here!], I finished off putting the hood, paws and knee pads on, and became my pup self. … Then the rain started!!! Luckily we bought a rainbow brolly and it was big enough to keep this pup and Caz dry. Whilst waiting for the Parade to start I bumped into a few people I knew which was fun 🙂 *wags* and we all hoped the rain would pass – which by luck, it did just before we started.

Due to the ground being wet, I didn’t go straight off on all-4’s and walked normally 🙁 … technically though we hadn’t entered the public part of the parade yet, so it wasn’t the end of the world … We got near to the official start line and the sun had just tried to come out, meaning the ground had dried somewhat, so I dropped to all-4’s and was off! I had great fun, thought due to damp ground, and the parade moving a bit quicker than previous years, I had to drop in and out of being on all-4’s, but when stood up I did make myself known well by barking (loudly) at the crowds … who needs whistles 😉

At one point I went and said ‘hello’ to a real bio-puppy, too much amusement from people around. … The parade moved at a steady pace for the main part, so I was stood up, barking – though whenever we stopped I dropped to all-4’s and had fun with the crowds. One person even gave me their real dog so they could have a photo with me and the real dog *wags*

The main parade for me is a bit sketchy, as when in full pup mode, I don’t seem to really recall much, mainly because I’m enjoying just being a pup.

The rain stayed off for the most of the event, but when we did have a light drizzle my surrogate handler (Caz) did an excellent job of keeping me dry with the brolly.

The end seemed to come all to quick, and the group got directed into a side street to be able to have a mass group shot (or 2 or 3 or 4 ……. ) and then de-pup and head off our separate ways.

The decision for us was to head off back to Baker Street to the Nandos Chicken restaurant there to have some dinner …. though after dinner, I re-pupped up (as I hadn’t taken off the Zentai or knee-pads yet) and travel back home as a puppy on the train which caused much amusement to the carriage we were in – and it also confused the Beagle Bio-Dog that got on with us!

Overall a fantastic day out, the rain didn’t dampen spirits, and all had good fun …. some pics of me are here on my blog, and then as I find others I’ll do a couple of follow up posts

*wags* small paw tip up

Found some more picture of the pups in the Parade

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Jul 012013
 

I was sent this last night via twitter from: @sianbambina :
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*Wags* Thank you 🙂 – If there are any other pictures out there I’d still love to see them.

I have also been searching and found some more pics of the pups in the parade:
Pictures from Flickr (The first few links I can’t grab the image – but the links are here to the images)

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Flickr 3
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These are clickable pictures to the Flickr stream of the person who took them:

And here are some Facebook picture links:
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