Friday, 16 November
Friday was Pet Day at Queenstown Primary School. I have been around schools practically my entire life and have never seen a school event even remotely like this day. I have seen a student bring a cat, a puppy or dog, a turtle and even once in while a horse to school for sharing with friends. At Queenstown Pet Day, the entire study body, six hundred plus students, brings a pet to school. Doug and I walked to the school from the town centre. We peaked in the boys’ classrooms, but classrooms and most of the school was deserted. We walked across campus towards the playing fields and then started to catch glimpses of Pet Day between the buildings. We came to the top of the staircase, looked out over the fields and burst out laughing! It was absolutely over the top! The field was covered with people and animals. There were probably several hundred dogs, loosely segregated into small, medium and large groups. There were also rabbits, mice, guinea pigs, hamsters, lambs and calves. Cats were given a classroom as a quieter inside alternative to help them relax, as if that was possible. Wet Pets too were indoors. We learned that in past years seagulls diving into the tanks and fish bowls caused mayhem and devastation. This year the fish, frogs, tadpoles, lobsters, sea monkeys and little shrimp were safely housed under a roof. I didn't have time to visit the Feathered Friends, but spied them from a distance. I saw an assortment of chickens, chicks, roosters, parrots, ducks, and parakeets all lined on the shady side of the Wet Pet classroom.
All Queenstown school children wear a rainbow assortment of big, brightly colored sun hats that look like inverted tulip blooms. Doug and I scanned the sea of parents, mini Tulips and animals with the vain hope of spotting our own children. There was a table of homemade pets for students to bring a homemade pet, if they didn’t want or didn’t have a live pet. We started there and found Colin’s acrostic poem about our dog, Jolie. We eventually found Liam in the big dog area with his picture and description of Jolie. On the way to find Liam, Colin flew past with a pink tulip-headed friend. Colin looked thrilled to be tearing around virtually unsupervised. His companion said, “Come on Colin. We gotta go.” And, that was all we saw of Colin until after the assembly. Liam toured the animal sights with us for a while. Did I mention that many of the animals were in costume, particularly the dogs and lambs? There was a superman dog and a dog with a huge chain, white t-shirt and dark shades that looked like a gangster pup, or maybe is was Mr. T. The lambs stole my heart, especially the little one sporting a pink scarf, as soft and cuddly as her wooly coat. Her owner had her on a leash; it was a classic case of who’s leading whom? Doug and I sat and watched the children taking their pups through the obstacle course with widely varying levels of success. As I sat by the obstacle course I glanced up to the sky. Paragliders spiraled down towards us and landed on the adjacent field. I wished I had their birds’ eye view of Pet Day. The final event was the dog race. One group of students each with a dog lined up along one edge of the paragliding field and in the middle of the field a second group lined up to face the first group. Someone yelled ready-set-go! The dogs took off. Superman dog with cape streaming lead the pack passed the human finishing line and ran on across the field followed a large number of his fellow racers.
The day concluded with an all school assembly and the presentation of Pet Day awards. All the students clustered together on the lawn for the award ceremony. Most had handed their pets off to parents, but here and there a lamb snuggled next to its child.
How I wish we had bought a camera…
At the end of Pet Day assembly, I walked the boys back to their classrooms to get their school bags. Meanwhile, our house contract went unconditional. Doug received a call from our agent and he authorized our agent to inform the sellers that we removed the conditions of the due diligence. No turning back, we bought a house in Queenstown, our new home.
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