Walkabout | ZentaiSpot

Well, today has been a fun day out at London Pride – A long post follows, but enjoy 🙂 Pictures will appear in a blog post later on today once we’ve edited them. Also, I will ask my owner to write a bit about pride from his perspective as I become in to the full mindset of a puppy so I don’t see and remember all the audience reactions and what else is going on around me in the parade.

Some while ago, I was invited to join a group to walk in the Parade for London Pride – a group of puppies and their handlers…. well, I wouldn’t miss that chance unless something catastrophic happened – so arrangements were made meaning that I could go 🙂 *wags*

This morning I got up (after my usual coffee in bed) and showered. Bag duely packed and set off from home on-time!!! It was decided that my handler and I would drive some of the way, as it gives us better options for transport. Upon arriving at the car park, I changed into Spot, and packed my normal clothes into the bag (to take with us just incase of any issues during / after the parade) and set off on the tube.

We arrived at Baker Street in good time, and started to walk towards the parade (hoping we’d find our group as we weren’t quite sure where we were meeting!) – I decided it best to stop briefly en-route to go for a ‘tree break’ and another coffee to wake me up fully. Oh, and also whilst there it meant I could put some spray plaster on my knuckles as I’d cut them a few days ago, and though it best to give them a bit of protection, considering what happened last year.

We headed out the coffee shop, and down to the group, which we eventually found. On arrival, I sorted a few things out, and got kitted up with the hood, paws and knee pads. This seemed a good idea, but we were ages before the parade would actually start and since it was a warm and sunny day – I decided to take off the hood and paws for a while so I wouldn’t get too hot.

12:50pm – Just before the parade starts: Knee Pads checked, hood on, paws on, lead clipped on, and I’m ready to go; it seemed ages, but we eventually set off.

Due to the warm day, I thought I’d start on 2 legs and drop to all-4’s once nearer the ‘start line’ (if that’s what the best way of calling it would be). I dropped to all-4’s probably half way to the ‘start’ and off I went. A happy, content pup. Crossed the start line, but the pace this year was quicker than last year, that combined with me becoming warm, I stopped being on all-4s and came back to 2 legs … Though I had lasted longer on 4’s than most the rest of the puppies around me.

After a while I decided to become a noisy puppy, and enjoyed barking all the way from almost the start right through to the end – I think I surprised a few people with my bark – I don’t seem to do a quiet bark – it’s either all out right from the lungs, or I don’t bother!!

Somewhere nearish the middle, Someone handing out leaflets on the parade side of the barriers walked past with a dog, and I dropped to the floor and barked – the dog barked back, so I barked back … Though the person and real dog carried on walking up the side of the barriers, and every-so-often we caught up with him, but not long enough to have a barking contest 😉

Boy it was warm – I felt sorry for those in rubber! I was in the lycra zentai, but with the RubberDawg hood on, and I kept on needing a wipe from sweat in the mouth area, as it acted like a sweat trap and then just felt eugh – every-once-in-a-while, I’d turn to my owner/handler and he’d give my muzzle/mouth a wipe – It was enough to keep me feeling sane, but I could still feel that I was getting wet!

We meandered our way along with the parade, and at the end the marshals pointed us to a side street where after a few photos, all the puppies in the group de-hooded – took on-board lots of water and just relaxed. It was at this point I realised how much barking I’d done … I went to talk normally, but all that came out was a quiet, croaky voice!!! – I think the next few days will be quiet for me!

It was soon time to wander off, and after a quick discussion about where people were going, I decided that I’d head to Soho, as only the week before, we’d been in Prowler, and the cashier said I ought to come back in full kit and say “Hi” … On the way to Prowler and Soho, we stopped for food – which was most wanted by this time!

After food, we carried on into Soho – but not before spotting a “Dog Shop” – well, you don’t miss the opportunity whilst out with all the hood and paws etc … so I put the RubberDawg hood back on, dropped to all-4’s and my Owner took a picture of me beside their shop ‘A’ Board … From this point on I kept the hood on again … Off into Soho, absolutely crowded with people all having a good time. It took a while to get to Prowler – not just because of the number of people there, but because so many people wanted to have their picture taken with me!

Just before we arrived at Prowler, I put my paws back on, so I was in the full kit again. Unfortunately, on arrival at Prowler, we were most disappointed that the cashier from last week wasn’t there – so a quick look round the shop, and then we carried on wandering … We came across a shop that we’d not been in before, so decided to take a quick look. We bought a couple of bits that would be useful at some point, but whilst there I’d spotted a full body harness that I liked, but wasn’t quite convinced yet; so we paid for the small items, left the shop and had a quick chat outside. As we were heading back to the shop, since I decided that I did like the harness enough to get it, a few more pictures were taken… Harness bought, and now time to head home…

We decided to take the Underground from Oxford Circus to Kings Cross, but my owner wouldn’t carry me on the escalator, even though I was still in full Pup gear – Hood, Paws, Knee Pads, Harness and Zentai! 🙁 *whimpers*. Though, when we arrived at Kings Cross, I just had to do a daft thing … so on the escalator, I dropped to all-4’s and went up to Kings Cross, my head just above the handrail, so people could see a Dalmatian Puppy 🙂 *wags*. At Kings Cross we headed to Baker Street, where on arrival, a bottle of drink was purchased, and we got onto the Met Train towards Uxbridge … well, the train had very few empty seats, and I couldn’t resist – I sat on the floor, as a puppy for the entire journey – It caused much merriment to those on the tube, some suddenly realising that I’m not a dog, but someone dressed as a dog, and others trying to discreetly take pictures – I’ll say this here: I don’t mind pictures being taken of me 🙂 *wags* – If you’re not sure, do ask – I don’t bite and as yet I’ve not said ‘no’

Well, once at our tube stop, there was one last thing to do – get off the tube as a dog. So as the train neared our station, I walked to the door on all-4’s. Waited patiently at the doors, and when they opened, I walked off the train, onto the platform as a puppy. Unfortunately, as we were right by the stairs and there were lots of other people heading our way, and I didn’t want to cause a problem and so stood up, walked up the stairs normally and out the tube station to the car to head home.

Through various online websites that I’m a member of, a walking party was organised to participate in the London and World Pride parade today, walking from Baker Street to Trafalgar Square, and on to Whitehall to disperse. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to participate in this, and with no shift at work, I was free to join in.

There’s been a lot written about the organisation of Pride and the changes to the start time, but that’s not relevant to this blog. In the lead up to the event, I was having a lot of debate as to whether to go in Zentai or in Latex – due to the weather forecast, Latex may have seemed more practical, but as I’m known as ‘ZentaiSpot’ I decided I would go in Zentai. Thankfully, the decision held out , with there only being a couple of rain showers.

We were told to assemble on Baker Street around about 10.15am, and I decided that I’d travel the entire way in Zentai, although with the hood down. We got on the train at West Ruislip, and travelled in to Marble Arch – where we got out and discovered it was pouring! A quick stop at Boots to buy an umbrella, buttons and a few bottles of juice saw us heading for the walk to the assembly point. Spotting a group of puppies sheltering under some scaffolding, we went and joined them and I added the finishing touches to the outfit – putting the hood up, adding the paws etc. After that, we had some photos taken by random photographers, and then on to assembling for the march.

At this point I dropped to all 4s for more photos and remained on them for a bit. My owner and others report that there were lots of bemused looks from people passing by on buses – including a coach party taking pictures, and an entire bus (all of 2 passengers!) taking pictures as well. There were also lots of people from other groups, and random members of the public taking pictures too.

We eventually set off at about 11.30am on a slow walk to Whitehall. Having now got home, I’ve worked out that it was about 3km. I started off on all 4s, and continued this way as we walked down Baker Street, stopping periodically as the group of dancers in front of us kept stopping as part of their act. The one thing that I did notice is that there were quite a lot of people taking pictures of us, and our steward was doing his best to keep things moving.

As the parade route narrowed and widened, I managed to pull my owner to the front of our group, so was quite happily crawling along on all 4s, but not really able to see much. There were lots more stopping and starting, and eventually we reached the corner of Oxford Circus. Standing with the dancers in front of us was Stephen Fry working on a documentary, and having a look at what was going on in the parade. He did acknowledge and say hello to the group, but we didn’t get to speak to him, unfortunately.

We turned off on to Oxford Circus, and the parade route got a bit wider, and again there were lots of people watching and taking pictures. I continued walking on all 4s, behaving like a good puppy *wags* and walking and stopping when told. Again, progress was slow, but there was the odd couple of instances where I had to move quite quickly on all 4s to catch up and narrow the gap with the group in front. Everyone in the crowd seemed to be having a good time, and there were lots of pictures being taken by various people.

We progressed to the end of Oxford Circus, and tuned in to Regent Street, where things started to get busy with crowd – but again, I was still on all 4s. Unfortunately, this was to come to an end at Hamleys Toy Shop (about 1.6km in to the 3km route), due to the Parade pace quickening. I think I did quite well to keep to all-4’s for that duration in one go! At this point I became a bi-ped dog rather than a quadroped, but still kept dropping back in to 4s mode when I was able to. There came another rain shower at this point, and I was sheltering under my owner’s umbrella as this puppy goes see-through in the rain! *whine*

We walked down to Picadilly Circus, and at this point a gap opened up between ourselves and the group in front of us… so myself and a cat that had joined our group (sorry, I don’t know who you were, but if you’re reading this blog, do let me know!) decided to have a quick game of chase, in the parade route. *wags* Unfortunately the ground was a bit wet and slippery and I slid a bit and knocked one of my knee pads off.

This brought us down to the final stretch and the walk to Trafalgar Square – yet more pictures taken, but again progress was slow as we made our way down to the Square and around towards Whitehall. I was, at this point, alternating between 2 feet and 4 feet. As we approached Trafalgar Square I dropped back to all-4’s as the end of the parade was nearing. Whilst in Trafalgar Square, my owner dragged me over to the side to say hello to Scamp who was in the crowd with his other half and some friends. The group eventually headed to a side street just off Whitehall, where we breathed a sigh of relief. As I said earlier, I’ve since worked out that the route was 3km long, and we’d been walking for about 2.5hrs.

After some pictures with our group, it was time for most of us to remove hoods etc. so we could have a drink… and I’ve never been more relieved to see some chocolate buttons and a bottle of Coke! After pictures and a discussion, we all went our separate ways and my owner and I decided to go back to see Scamp and Mark, while the others went back to a house party.

I had a fantastic day out today, and there’s some pictures and (hopefully) a video attached to this blog.

*woofs*

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