3rd Annual Northwest Rattiefest: Huge Success!

Wow! What an amazing event. From doing head counts on the different panoramic photos we know there were close to 90 humans and 50 dogs who joined the festivities.

From all the smiling facing and wagging tails, we're pretty sure that attendees had a great time. The humans bought tickets and could spend those tickets on trying their luck at the raffle where there were 28 great raffle items to try for, or they could spend tickets on the new games we had this year. A big thanks to my husband Troy who had the idea to add games! Dogs got to bob for hot dogs at the Dog Eat Dog booth, or they could try out a large variety of puzzle toys with their parents at the Puzzle Plaza. Humans could guess the number of kibble pieces in a jar in attempts to win a very nice soft sided crate full of Evanger dog food and treats. There was also the Rattie Rollin' dice game where you could roll the dice and depending on your roll, could win from three different groups of prizes - everyone won something in this game.

Bobbing for hot dog pieces

Some kids try their luck at the Rattie Rollin' game

The end result of this fantastic event (other than exhausted dogs) was that over $1,600 was raised in just 2 hours. That money will be used to pay for medical care and transport costs of the Northwest New Rattitude foster dogs. I want to extend a great big thank you to all of you who attended and purchased tickets. Not only have you guys made a difference by adopted a homeless Rat Terrier, you are continuing to make a difference by helping more rat terriers.

Inigo (former NR foster dog) tests out the Buster Maze at the Puzzle Plaza

And just as important, I want to thank the New Rattitude Northwest team of volunteers. You gave money for supplies, gifts for the raffle, begged and borrowed banquet tables from around the region, and brought all kinds of things from home so that this event could run so smoothly.

The Raffle Table

New Rattitude Information Table

Looking down the hill at some of the different Rattiefest booths

Thanks to all of you who worked booths and brought items. We couldn't have done it without your help and generosity. But a special shout out to Cindy Tokar for managing the food table and making all the signs for that, bagging up goodies, and talking her mom into once again making her epic homemade whoopie pies and shortbread to sell. Also a big thanks to Bruce and Karyn Fleming. Bruce helped us out by making beautiful signs for each of the different areas and Karyn managed the raffle, pulling together all the donated items into gift sets and making them look pretty and festive. Thanks to Carol Giberson for doing all the things that I was dropping the ball on thanks to the unexpected and happy event of Langley's adoption being processed.  She wrote up directions for the different games and the supply lists for each of them, managed the Biggest Loser: Northwest Rattie Edition and tallied up all the dogs weight loss stats so I'd have that info to announce the winners at the event, and then finally brought the 1/2 car load full of boxes that I couldn't fit into my Honda so that Troy and I didn't have to drive 2 cars to the event.

Pearl, a former NR foster dog, looking pretty

Elvis was one of our former foster dogs for NR. Such a sweet guy.

One of the best part of the events for the foster parents is getting a chance to see former fosters again, happy and enjoying their life as beloved family dogs. There were so many former New Rattitude fosters attending - I know I missed several - but it was great to see a few of my former kiddos. Elvis was a boy who was returned because he was fearful of the crawling baby in the home and the husband didn't like him. We found him a wonderful home with a former adopter and he and his sister Pearl alternate time between living in the city of Seattle and hanging out at their cabin that they hike into up in the mountains. Also attending was a foster dog from back in January of this year. Zia was one of the Rat Terrier-Jack Russell mix pups who we fostered back in January. She's 9 months old now and a tall, long legged beauty, full of energy and ready for fun. She had a blast tearing around with all the dogs and was fast, fast, FAST! Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of her but we just did a pupdate post on Zia so you saw how pretty she grew up to be. And Huckleberry also came and said hi to me. He looked great and was so much braver than he used to be. He clearly has blossomed in his home.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the photos and if you didn't make it we hope you'll be able to join us next year.