For those who don’t know, we occasionally are invited to attend pet-related and writer-related conferences. BlogPaws combines both of these events into one giant assembly of animal-loving writers!
This year, the event was held at the Westin in Lake Las Vegas, NV. Lake Las Vegas is about 20 miles outside of “regular” Vegas. It’s quieter, no gambling (so we can concentrate) and is just a beautiful locale for a week away from the computer.
We don’t often post a lot photos, but so much happened during this event that we thought it would be a good time to change that policy. Here is our trip to BlogPaws in pictures.
We boarded the plane, put 3D Bree in the overhead compartment and was immediately confronted with a young girl about five-years-old who protested our treatment of the dog! Hooray for responsible pet ownership! We had to remove 3D Bree and show the girl (and her family) that it wasn’t really a dog.
We arrived at McCarron Airport and were greeted by a very friendly man who agreed to be photographed a bazillion times. Thanks, Dude!
The first night, we met some old friends and made some wonderful new friends! First, a cocktail party hosted by Bissell Pet, then we awoke to this:
The next day we set about meeting our friends, making some new friends, and gathering hundreds of business cards of blogs we have to check out! Here are just a very few of the pets (and people) we met. WindWolf Photography had her three well-behaved dogs there (they know lots of great tricks).
We also met Sugar from Golden Woofs, Jake from Hiking with Fido; Zeki the Cool Cat and her human, Arden Moore (Zeki is a bit of a bully and took 3D Bree’s shades); Gander the Service Dog and his human, Lon Hodge – who just finished a book we’ll be reviewing soon called “In Dogs We Trust”; and finally – Preston, the Pom whose human is Lauren Nativo from the Hallmark Channel, and the other writer who was sponsored by our sponsor, Earth’s Balance.
Steve Dale spoke about Lyme disease over breakfast (he even kept it from being gross!). We learned some really interesting facts about the rapid spread of tick-borne disease and we will be covering this topic soon because it effects everyone in the world.
By Day Four, we were pretty well exhausted. So we played a hooky a bit and spent some time at the lake. We did some kayaking (getting sunburned for our efforts)
(From L-R: Dana Humphreys of Whitegate PR, Michelle Maskalay of Pet Age Magazine, Stacy Mantle of PetsWeekly.com, Jake the Dog, Andrea Fischetti of ReelPaws, Beke Lubeach of Dog TV)
3D Bree took to the lake for some paddle-boarding. Since I can barely walk on land, I figured I best stay off the lake.
Breaks between classes are a time to catch up and meet new friends. Here is Sandy Robins with Mia, the capybera. Our ferret friend, Marilyn Monroe in a wedding dress. The cute cat that is all dressed up so nice is from Curlz and Swirls.
There were dozens of booths set up that we could visit and learn about the newest products being developed. Here is one that caught my eye – a cat yoga mat! This was just one of the many products in the amazing Cat Lounge that Kate Benjamin (of Hauspanther fame) sets up each year.
Here is our amazing sponsor, Earth’s Balance. They have dozens of new products, all-natural, that have hit the market. We will be talking specifically about Pill Paste (our new favorite way to give a pill!) and 180XT (a stain, odor and pheremone remover). See how well this stuff works in our video!
The Honest Kitchen was also there! Of course, you know how much we love these guys. It’s the food that powers our four-legged kids!
After the excitement of the trip wore down, we were able to get some relaxation in. It was much needed.
Finally, we had a wonderful dinner with our new friends! Jason the marketing director of Tagg took us all out for a sushi dinner. I think he planned this pose…
(From L-R: Jody Miller of Bark & Swagger, Caroline Golon of High Paw Media, Arden Moore of Four Legged Life, Jason of Tagg, Michelle Maskalay of Pet Age Magazine, Stacy Mantle of PetsWeekly.com, Jake the Dog, Dana Humphreys of Whitegate PR, Beke Lubeach of Dog TV)
Again – we had a wonderful time and would like to encourage everyone to attend next year. A very special thanks to Marshall’s Pet for making our attendance a reality!