Olean Festival, Flying Squirrels, Biker Dogs, Ferrets, & Someone Looked Familiar!

This is the 2nd post of today so be sure to scroll down!

This past weekend was a busy one!  Saturday "we" were at a festival in Olean, NY, with our Wildtree Table.  It wasn't awesome but it wasn't awful sales-wise.  However we were forced to leave 2 hours early due to a 'down pour'.

Usually 4 of us go to events - My Mom, Dad, Sister, and I.  My parents had other obligations which I will tell you about in my next post.  So my sister and I were at this event - for the most part - by ourselves.  My Dad helped unload and my Mom stayed for about an hour.

There were many 'interesting' things that happened during this festival for us.  First you will see these TWO photos of - basically - a wall.  This is the side of the Rec Center at the Park in Olean that the festival was at.  When we first arrived this image was NOT present.  I noticed it about 30 minutes afterwards.

As you will see in the 2nd photo it's a closer look!

After MUCH deliberation about 20 of us came to the conclusion that this was a Black Flying Squirrel!  I have only seen photos of Flying Squirrels before and have never seen one in real life or up close.  This was a very tall building but the squirrel was quite large.  Flying Squirrels are generally nocturnal animals so it's rare to see them during the day like we did.  I kept an eye on this "cutie" all day!  He was there well after we left and would shift positions every 20 minutes or so thru-out the day!  After doing some research on Flying Squirrels in our area I have found they are rare and listed as "Least Concern" on the Endangered Species scale.  I was so excited to have seen one in real life!  It was one of the highlights of the weekend - for me.

BUT...the CUTENESS didn't stop there!  Saturday in Olean was real fun and there were LOTS of cute dogs roaming around...including this one!  His name is Winston and he and his family were there visiting the event as well!  They were among some of the Bikers that attended.  Winston is a Biker Dog as you can see from his goggles and carrier vest.  We were told that he LOVES riding motorcycles!  He's a Chihuahua/Pom mix and he was so sweet!

Another 'furry friend' we were watching was a man walking his albino Ferret!  What a neat day!

Another cool thing that happened Saturday during this event was that I recognized a guy next to us - a fellow vendor - who looked SO VERY FAMILIAR!  It was driving me crazy and I was trying NOT to stare.  Long story short - he was doing the same thing - looking over thinking I looked familiar!  Come to find out we went to college together and we haven't seen each other in 15 years or so.  He has been doing wood working as well as handmade bracelets with quality beads among other things.  He told me he was doing a lot of Pet Accessories, too!  My sister and I ended up buying 2 bracelets from him as well as a Wine Bottle Holder that I will be giving my Dad tonight for a Birthday Present (his Birthday was yesterday).  I hope I get to see his other creations at future shows.  It was neat to see him after all these years and funny we both recognized each other!

Like I said before - we were forced to leave early due to heavy rain.  My sister and I are not as good as my Father when it comes to packing the car up - but - we DID IT!  Here's a funny picture of my sister after we fit everything into her Nissan.

My sister was pretty funny this weekend!  It was great sister time.  I will tell you more about that in my next post.  I realize this entry is a bit long already.

Questions of the day: Have you ever seen a Flying Squirrel?  When's the last time you had that feeling you knew someone - how did you handle it and what was the outcome?  Did you see any "cute" or "interesting" this past weekend!?

Warning! Cute Puppies Ahead...

This past weekend we spend quite a bit of time at 'camp'.  My husband's family has almost 120 acres of land in the woods and a bunch of us have standing campers planted in the middle of nature!   My husband's cousin and her husband's 2 dogs BOTH had puppies within a week of each other!  Between the two of them they had 17 that 'made it' and 7 that didn't.  Could you imagine TWO DOZEN puppies!  Oh my goodness!  These two adorable ones were at camp for a while on Saturday.  They fell asleep like this under one of the 4 wheelers someone had up there.  Camp is not a stranger to kids AND furkids visiting so everyone knows to proceed the camping area with extreme caution.

Check this one out!  He seriously feel asleep like this on Jodi's lap!  So cute!  Wendy knows a lot of people and thankfully all of them have homes lined-up.  We would have taken one if we didn't already have 3 of them.  Plus these kiddos are Lab/Retriever Mixes and are going to be much larger than we are used to in our home of vertically challenged puppers!

BUT...guess who DID take one home!?  My Borther In Law Mike!  On Sunday they brought three of them to camp and the one snuggled up to Mike right away and stayed right with him the whole time!  I found an old sweater in the camper and his new puppy claimed it right away!  Mike has decided to name him "Blue".  For various reasons, really, but it stems from an inside joke of our love for the movie "Old School" with Will Ferrell.  That night Dale and I went home and grabbed a few toys from our stash (ones that we were hiding from our 'kids' because they were too fragile) as well as a leash, collar, and X-Pen...and brought it back for him to take home.  Right away I text messaged him yesterday to see how Blue did overnight and he did really well and him and Junior (his adult cat) and the new addition are already bonding well!  It's perfect because Mike has a nice sided yard that is also enclosed for Blue to run and play when he gets a little older.  Something that we lack at our house.  I'm so happy for him and know he's already 'attached'.