Struttin' around town: Dogs, their owners vie for prizes in Mutt Strut poker run

Dogs of all shapes and sizes turned out in droves with their owners Saturday for the Downtown Business Association's Mutt Strut.

The event, also billed as a poker run, was sponsored by Carson City's Downtown Business Association in the Carson Nugget's west event parking lot on Carson Street.

DBA Chairman Lenny Chappell said the association decided it wanted to do something other than the wine walk downtown, and that the Mutt Strut had been in the works since February.

"We really wanted to do something family-oriented that did not include alcohol, and which also introduced people to what's downtown," Chappell said.

For $10, participants were given a map to seven shops to which they could walk their dogs to and receive a card. At the end of the walk, the person with the highest hand in each group won a prize.

Three groups with separate stops, provided exposure to 21 downtown businesses. The poker run encompassed an area on the west side from Highway 50 East as far south as 3rd Street, Chappell said.

Participants also received a bag of $10 worth of coupons for use in the downtown businesses and a "poop bag" so that everyone could be "a responsible pet owner."

"The dogs all seem to be very well-behaved, and the owners are well-behaved as well," Chappell said, laughing.

Chappell, who has four dogs of his own - a collie mix, a chihuahua and two chow mixes - said he was very pleased with the turnout.

"We've got lots of kids and lots of husbands and wives here, and we've got the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) getting information out there for adoptions," Chappell said.

Laura Redmon and Maria Batt had a booth set up to help inform the public about Parks 4 Paws, a group dedicated to getting a dog park in Carson City.

"We want to open Carson City's first dog park," Redmon said. "We've got a lot of dog-friendly parks, but not a dog park."

Redmon said the group is looking at two acres behind Fuji Park which is merely dirt with shade trees right now and it is trying to raise about $17,000 to fence it completely.

Other plans include splitting the property into two halves to separate small dogs from big ones, building shade structures, planting grass and adding water faucets. The group also is eyeing another dog park in the Centennial Park area.

Ten-year-old best friends Abby Northrop and Quincey Sosebee of Carson City, were having a great time with their dogs. Abby, who has Savannah, a puggle - which is a pug-beagle mix - said she wanted to see how many people had puggles, and that she had already met one.

"I also wanted to exercise my dog," she said.

Quincey had her own motives.

"I get to see all the different dogs and what people picked out for their dogs to wear," she said.

Gary Nolan held onto his tiny 4-1/2-month-old English toy spaniel, Ernie, as he strolled among the booths.

"My wife, Margaret, loves this dog, but she had to work and couldn't come," Nolan said.

Ernie, he said, was the runt of the litter.

"I fed him with an eye dropper to keep him alive," Nolan said.

Chappell said the DBA intends to make the Mutt Strut an annual event.