The Nanaimo SPCA is hosting a community day, and people can bring all their family members – including those with paws.
Katie Heagle, Nanaimo SPCA animal care supervisor, said the annual event will have shelter tours, face painting, kids crafts and food including pizza, veggie burgers and cotton candy.
"We love having community day because it brings a lot of families into the centre, they're able to have a tour of our facility, see how things operate [and] they get to meet a lot of the different staff," Heagle said. "We're going to have our animal protection services officer [here], he's going to go around and talk about the importance of animal welfare, and talk about what he does for his job."
For those with furry companions, there will be a dog photo booth, and Taylor's Mobile Paw Spa will be doing nail trims by donation for both cats and dogs from 1 to 3 p.m.
Attendees will be able to meet some of the SPCA's adoptable puppies and fill out an application to potentially adopt one. Some planned puppies include chihuahua-terrier mixes and pitbull mixes.
"We'll have staff hanging out with the puppies, talking about enrichment and working with your puppy," said Heagle.
Best Paw Forward Dog Training and DAWG Training Academy will have free one-hour seminars throughout the day with 25 seats available.
The event takes place Sunday, Sept. 22 from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. At 11:30 a.m. there will be a presentation on raising birds, bunnies and guinea pigs. Following that, at 12:30 p.m., will be puppy socialization, then non-aggressive reactivity at 1:30 p.m. At 2:30 p.m. there will be a course on leash pulling, then preventing jumping up on people behaviour at 3:30 p.m.
"A lot of cool information a lot of people I think would benefit from greatly," Heagle said.
The event will be located at the Nanaimo SPCA shelter in Nanaimo at 154 Westwood Rd.
"It's mainly just to have people here and enjoy a day with the community where they can see what we do and hopefully learn a little bit."
