Best Friends Animal Society -- Iron County Dog-Day Afternoon Pet Event for Cedar City/Enoch Huge Success

FEBRUARY 24, 2007 -- The first-ever Iron County Dog Day Afternoon was held inside a metal building on a freezing cold day, but the people, dogs and cats who came to the event gave it paws and thumbs up.

About 400 people attended the event sponsored by Best Friends Animal Society. It was held Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007, inside the Diamond Z Equestrian Center in Cedar City. According to the local people from Cedar City and Enoch, a crowd of 400 is an absolutely huge turnout.

Rescue groups Furever Friends and Cedar Animal Rescue, and the Cedar Animal Control and Enoch Animal Control were all there with adoptable dogs and cats.

The Southern Utah Dog Club put on agility demonstrations and dazzled the crowd with their fancy footwork. The Zion K-9 Search and Rescue dogs proved why they are everyone's heroes, showing how good they are at finding just about anything. 

Best Friends Humane Ed department had fun activities for kids and there was a dog grooming demonstration by Tyner's Grooming.  Pamela Williams from the Hitching Post provided free dog training for people who brought there own dogs and she also gave talks on how to pick the right dog for your family and how to keep the family dog happy.

Homeless pets came hoping this was going to be their lucky day. One former mama pit bull even came dressed in a snappy belted "blue dress" (Enoch Animal Control Officer Chris Johnson's bathrobe) and she was one of the lucky dogs to go home.  A rat terrier worked his tail off, standing up on his back legs, holding hands with folks and taking them for walk, but his family didn't show up….they will be coming soon, everyone told him.  Puppies did puppy stuff and the cats flirted with the crowd…when they weren't busy trying to tune out the yapping dogs, assuming the meatloaf position and closing their eyes. 

The best news of the day was that 11 dogs and one cat were adopted, including the pit bull.

And there was more good news on Monday Enoch Animal Shelter adopted out two black-mixed breed dogs "we had lots of traffic on Monday at the shelter, and I'm sure those adoptions were a direct result from Dog-Day," Chris Johnson said. 

Article by Barbara Williamson
Photos by Nola Kelsey