Today was a big day for Oskar. It marked his official entrance into wiener dog racing. Jonathan and I had seen clips online of wiener dog races and thought the concept was just absolutely hilarious. However, since we've been overseas for 5 years, we never got a chance to throw our lot into one. Well, God has a pretty funny sense of timing: a wiener dog race was scheduled for the exact time we were going to be home on leave. Even better, it was to benefit the Susan G. Komen breast cancer fund. We paid a $10 entrance fee and then contestants could bet on the dogs; if you picked the winning dog, you got a t-shirt and all the money from the betting went to charity. With such a good cause, how could we refuse?
Here's us getting ready to enter the stadium for registration. . .
The race consisted of 4 heats of 8 dogs. Each dog required two human "helpers": one human was responsible for loading the dog into the starting block (pictured below) and then standing 25 yards away. Once the dog was released from the starting block, that person would yell and try to coax the dog to run by running with him/her towards the finish line (another 75 yards away) where the other human "helper" was stationed as a cheerleader/doggie catcher. Being 7.5 months pregnant, I was designated as the cheerleader while Jonathan's job was to run with Oskar down the track.
A wiener dog parade of all contestants before the start of the race. We're in the middle of the picture (Jonathan's in the green shirt).
Oskar was in the 3rd heat, lucky number 7. He wasn't too happy about his "racing jacket."
Several people were betting on Oskar (known as "Oskar with a 'k'" because there was more than one Oskar in the race); many said they were going to bet on him because he was from Germany. The pressure didn't seem to bother Oskar, but his fan base was nervous with anticipation before his heat. This is Jonathan's mother and aunt, cheering away. :)
No need to worry, though. I had a trick up my sleeve, in the shape of a little, yellow tennis ball. (Yes, this was completely legal--we just couldn't have any noise makers.)
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand. . . they're off! You can't really see Oskar in this picture, but you can see Jonathan yelling for him.
The camera man is in the way in this shot, but its the only one we have of Oskar crossing the finish line. I'm squatting down greeting him, but all you can really see is him in his bright orange jacket. It took him a little while to figure out what was going on and what he was supposed to be doing, but as soon as he did, he put his game face on and took OFF! When all was said and done, he had come in second place in his heat! He had earned a place in the finals! Yay, OKB!
The top two dogs from each heat made it to the championship race. For this race, Oskar was #6 and had to wear a black racing jacket (not too much fun in the hot summer sun). But this time around, he knew what he was supposed to do!
It's hard to see Oskar because of his black jacket, but if you watch towards the end, you'll see him come screaming across the finish line. It was a pretty close race. . . but not because of anything Jonathan or I did. Oskar was actually chasing ANOTHER guy who was trying to coax his dog down the track! You can see ME chasing after Oskar trying to stop him AFTER he crossed the finish line. And if you watch until the very end, you'll see Jonathan go up and shake the guy's hand. We had to thank him for leading our dog to second place. :)
After the race, we had a nice little awards ceremony for the winner and OKB, who got a runner-up plaque. He also got a special shout-out for traveling all the way from South Korea to be in the race (and Jonathan got a special thank you from the crowd for serving our great country--man is it good to be back in America!)
Oskar's cheering section celebrating his 2nd place finish. Thank you, everyone, for coming out and supporting our little boy!
And, in case you're curious, because he did so well, Oskar's reward was part of a cheeseburger on the way home and a long day spent swimming in the pond at the farm afterwards. I think it was pretty much one of his best days EVER. :)
Love it Jenn!
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