Manteca Pumpkin Fair

October has arrived, and that means Halloween is coming. Halloween is a big deal here in the US, the candy companies make big bucks by promoting the fanfare of the hallowed day, so the kids get more candies, and the humans have to buy more of them. Pumpkins are everywhere, at people's doorsteps, by the street corners, on the shop fronts.
Manteca had a weekend of a Pumpkin street fair. Many booths were set up and there were tonnes of people and good food. I could smell the delicious meats in the air, and the excitement was bubbling within me. As an animal of opportunity, I made sure I picked up pieces of pop corn off the ground, that people dropped. Yummy... there were these old ancient cars that Mum wanted me to explore and check out. She said, it'll help me with being de-sensitized to big strange things. I thought they were quite pretty. I wasn't scared a wee bit.

Mum and I posing with old tracktors.

Then my nose brought me to a booth where these ladies had handmade doggie treats, cookies and jerkies. The vendor offered me some, I took them gently, and they were so delicious. Mum didn't buy me any, because they were charging $5 for 5 ounces of dried pig heart. She thought it was ridiculously priced, since I eat them at home raw, and they don't cost THAT much!

See, another dog customer called Cooper was also really interested.

There were lots of people at the fair, with toddlers and babies pushed in trams, and all kinds of loud noises, but I took it all in stride. Being exposed often to crowded places like this has shown me that being social and polite in public is important.

Hi Rob, I'm pretty happy being here with you, are you enjoying it too?

Exotic cars were lined up on the streets for everyone to admire them. Some people were admiring ME. Imagine that...

Mum, I like this one, can we take it home?

Then the most remarkable thing happened. Horses showed up AGAIN. As you may gather by now, I've got this thing with horses. I've always been fascinated by these strange large creatures. Mum has taught me not to charge at them, or to bark at them, but this takes lots of self-control. These horses had policemen sitting on them, and they were guarding the railway track.

I was really keen to get closer to those horses, but Mum wouldn't let me. All of a sudden, we heard a loud siren and a horn going off, and right in front of us, a gigantic train zoomed by at such a high speed, it was really very ear-piercingly loud. It towed large segments with tonnes of stuff and I was amazed at the noise it made. This was really my first time seeing a train go by at such a close range, but I was not frightened. I didn't even flinch at the noise.

Its a pity Koa doesn't ride well in the car, or do well with large crowds, cos otherwise, he could have come with us, to experience this with me. I had a fun day at the fair though...

Hugs,
Kimi