Portland Marathon spectator's report

Yesterday was the Portland Marathon. Trevor and I like to head downtown and cheer our friends. We did it last year and had a great time. We decided we'd go again this year and take all three dogs with us. Buster and Maggie run with us during the week - usually 5 or 6 miles. We kept telling them how some people would be running 26.2 miles, Maggie kept saying she didn't want to run a marathon. We set her mind at ease and told her we were just going to watch!

We all piled into the car around 8:30. Our first stop was at Starbucks for a coffee. Then we stopped at my favorite Italian Bakery called DiPrima Dolci - I love that place. We got egg sandwiches on hard rolls and lots of cookies. Perfect food to fuel for marathon spectating!

After we ate, we headed down to about mile 21 on the marathon route. We got the dogs all leashed up. Trevor took Maggie and Buster, I had Asha. Maggie gets nervous around crowds, Buster is always on high alert and Asha just basks in the overwhelming amount of new smells.

We walked backwards along the marathon route, looking for people we knew. We'd stop every now and then. Maggie liked to be walking much more than she liked to be stopped. Asha did great - she'd either sit or lay down when we stopped. Its amazing to me that she doesn't get scared of new places.

People wanted to meet the doggies, to pet them. Other doggies wanted to meet our doggies. Asha was the most open to this. Maggie wasn't so sure and neither was Buster, but Asha....she'd get SO excited when she would smell another dog or sense that a person was close. Lots of people asked about her - what kind of dog she was because they've never seen a white Australian Shepherd. Several people asked if she was albino. We got to tell quite a few people her story and I really like that. Asha loves to educate people about bad breeders and to show people that dogs like her can have a life.

There was a little girl, about 4 or 5, who really wanted to meet Asha. I brought Asha over to her and Asha licked her face. The little girl put her hands up to her face and I thought she was crying, but she was giggling so hard. Asha just kept licking her. It was so sweet.

As we kept walking, Asha was nipping at my heels, I put my water bottle down between her and my legs so she would stop. Instead, she grabbed my water bottle and carried it for about 10 minutes. All the runners passing by kept saying to each other "look at the dog carrying the water!" We were so proud of our little girl. She was just so cute. Maggie was happy to have the attention on someone else, she doesn't like to be looked at. Buster just kept his eyes out to be sure we were all safe.

After a couple hours, we were all getting tired and decided to head back to the car. Asha climbed up front onto Trevor's lap for the ride home. She fell asleep there - Buster and Maggie fell asleep in the back. Just the way we like it!

When we got home, we started a fire and all of us took a long afternoon nap. Asha had a really easy time falling asleep at bed time too. We should do a marathon every weekend!!