Pucks for Pets 2009

Sponsored by WestVet

What a great time! Hockey fans and pet lovers joined at the Qwest Arena on Friday, February 20th to enjoy some hockey and support Northwest Animal Companions for our annual event: Pucks for Pets! 

Stuff the WestVet Ambulance!

Fans were asked to bring pet food donations to the game, and they responded! We collected over 300 pounds and 100 cans of food. We stuffed that WestVet ambulance! Way to go fans! A special thanks to Mike and Nikkie for standing out in the cold most of the evening. Now that is dedication for the animals!

 The dog toys were a huge hit as well! We had hundreds of toys donated by Petco ready for the thousands of people coming through the front door. Again, a HUGE thanks to all the volunteers that sold these toys (even though the foyer was really, really cold!) and talked to all the fans on the way in. The steelheads scored their first goal only 1:30 minutes into the game, so we didn’t have a chance to sell all of the toys, but people were still purchasing them on the way out to take home. Seeing the arena filled with blue and red toys was amazing! 

Zeus gets some extra special attention

We had several dogs there including the big New Foundland mix named Zeus. He got special treatment wandering the suites and even met a few kids at a birthday party that he fell in love with. From the sounds of it, some people fell in love with him as well. Zeus found a home!

Blue becomes a NAC volunteer

Well, the dust is still settling from our hootin’ and hollerin’! Fun was had by all and we learned some things.

1. Karaoke is very, very popular. Morty can entertain with the best of them! (You had to be there, it’s indescribable!)

2. Texas Hold ‘Em is also very popular and draws an audience… even outside. Way to go Ryan Baumwart for winning the grand prize of the evening!

3. People like food! (Ok, we knew this one.) The food was FANTASTIC! A huge thanks to Ian and Diane Trenwith for coming all the way from Santa Barbara, California to cater our event. The meal was unforgettable!

 4. There are a great bunch of people in our area that came together that evening to have some fun, eat some food and save the animals. (We knew  this one too, but it’s always nice to be reminded.)

The final numbers are still coming in as we get the last of the online auction items to people, but the night was definitely a success! Thank you to everyone who attended and supported NAC!

Made possible by our sponsors:

Well, our second year goes down in history as a success! After several days of doing a “sun dance”, the morning of May 24^th was perfect weather. A couple hundred people and their dogs gathered at Eagle Island State Park for Wag ‘n’ Walk 2008. Together we celebrated the human/animal bond and raised funds for Northwest Animal Companions.

The morning started out mingling with other dog lovers and wandering through the booths of pet-friendly businesses. Then, everyone strolled the shores of the lake with their canine companions and enjoyed the gorgeous Idaho outdoors. We couldn’t have asked for a more serene morning! A special thanks to Dan Tooker and his dog, Baxter, for being the Grand Marshall and leading the way!

When everyone was done with their walk, Dan led us through some demonstrations. We watched Renee from Reining Cats and Dogs show us how a treadmill can be used to help with behavioral problems. Then we saw an amazing demonstration of skill and technique by Kelly from Circle Lazy K Stockdogs. His dog was able to herd ducks in an unfenced area and show us the talent that these herding dogs really have.

From there, we went into the contests which are always a sight to see! The raffle was quite popular as well. Congratulations to all the winners and we hope you had a great time! We’d also like to say a very special thank you to the 50+ volunteers that gave their time before and during the event as well as all of our sponsors! We couldn’t have done it without you!

While figures are only preliminary, it looks like the morning was not only fun but earned Northwest Animal Companions just over $4000! This will make an incredible difference for animals in our community. Thank you to everyone that attended and we’ll see you next year!

For more pictures of Wag ‘n’ Walk 2008, click HERE! (Click on Gallery, then Wag ‘n’ Walk at the bottom of the page.)

Who knew hockey and pets mixed so well?

After much anticipation, about 30 NAC volunteers gathered at the Qwest Arena on the night of February 13th for Pucks for Pets with the Idaho Steelheads. In hurried excitement, everything got setup and we were ready for the people to start rolling in… and boy did they! Fans were able to purchase chew toys donated by Petco and raffle tickets on the way in and visited with some darling little puppies at the NAC booth just inside the entrance. We had several of our currently adoptable dogs there for visiting and raffled off some great prizes.  

The toys were to be thrown onto the ice when the Steelheads scored the first goal, and was that a sight! Magic 93.1 was also there to sponsor the game and took one of the precious little puppies, Toby, onto the ice during one of the intermissions to show everyone! He was famous after that and started getting his own donations. Go Toby!

 After all was said and done, we raised just over $2000, received over 700 pounds of pet food, and adopted 3 dogs! Just as important, we met so many great people and had a really good time. Special thanks goes out to all the volunteers, Petco (thanks Kent!), the Idaho Steelheads and Magic 93.1!

 Also, a big thanks to RoppOp Photography for documenting the evening for us. If you would like to see the entire collection of pictures from the event, click here.

What a great event this turned out to be!  Thanks to countless volunteers and crafters, we had such a variety of things to offer on this cold day in December. The trees were selling like hot cakes and the treats and crafts were just the right thing to make the holidays a little brighter for everyone – especially the animals!