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Paws, Claws & Costumes
Pet Fest back for spooky season
The colorful tarantulas, demons, hippies, skeletons, cowboys and cows who descended upon Plaza Park last weekend had one thing in common: they were all dogs in disguise. Many of them did not seem particularly happy to be wearing a costume, but each one enjoyed spending the Saturday chasing after fellow contestants and hanging out with their owners.
In addition to the pet costume contest, Pet Fest featured dog races, a pet trick contest and live music from Mariachi Los Lobos Juvenil (from Lehman High School in Kyle) and the Ace Pepper Band. The K-9 team from the San Marcos showed off their drug tracking and pursuit skills.
The event was hosted by Pet Prevent A Litter (PALS) of Central Texas to promote responsible pet ownership, shelter pet adoptions, local rescue groups and most importantly the continued efforts to have all pets spayed and neutered and zero pets in shelters.
PALS gave away 21 free microchips during the event. The San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter adopted out all of the dogs they brought except for one. The winner of the costume contest was a black German Shepard with a hand-painted skeleton. Clementine, a small Papillon, won the best trick as she jumped to three times her height from a lyingdown position.
The dog races had three categories: Under 25, 25-50 and over 50. The winners of each category had a race-off for the overall champion. This year the smallest chihuahua Gordita raced against the largest dog River, which ended in a photo finish victory for River.
In his opening remarks, Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra highlighted the connection between county government and area pet owners.
“Hays County and PALS are working together to build life-saving programs for pets,” Becerra said. “As County Judge, my vision is to create pathways toward a stronger, more unified support system for pets and their people in our community.
“Pets are family. That bond matters. We want to help our neighbors keep their pets healthy, safe, and out of harm’s way,” he said.
Pet Fest costume contest Judge and Hays County Commissioner Michelle Cohen talked about specific programs the county has introduced to advocate for area pets.
“We know that pets are family, and we want to keep them with their family, Cohen said. “So one of the things that we did this year was begin our County’s first Animal Welfare Division within our Public Health department.”
Cohen introduced Kaitlyn Ledesma, the Animal Welfare Services Coordinator, who talked about partnerships with PALS as well as a new initiative in the Saddlebrook neighborhood.
“We’ve done some amazing collaboration events with PALS, providing low cost vaccines and preventatives and providing a pet food pantry at the Health Department for the community,” Ledesma said.
“And I would like to share that we have just been approved for a big TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) project for the people of Saddlebrook, and we will be TNRing 150 community cats … I’m very excited for that, and hopefully this will be our first project and many more to come.”
PALS has spayed and neutered over 20 thousand animals just in the last 5 years, according to a press release. PALS is dedicated to strengthening the animal- human bond by promoting responsible pet ownership and celebrating pets at Pet Fest.
