Since July is Animal Month at Bookmans, we pulled out all the stops and threw the biggest and best Walk on the Wild Side Animal Fair that this store has ever seen! We’ve been spreading the word for the past few months and it totally paid off because our awesome customers leashed up their dogs, cats, ferrets and snakes and brought them in store today to celebrate at our fair.

On top of the dozens and dozens of animals running around, we also invited some our favorite non-profit animal rescue groups to set up booths throughout our store and in the community room to share with the public some great information about volunteer opportunities and how to go about adopting one of their animals. The groups included: The Arizona Animal Welfare League, The Amazing Aussies, The Arizona Adopt a Greyhound, The Soft Touch Animal Rescue and the Any Rat Rescue.

We also teamed up with a fellow member of Local First Arizona and invited the local business: Hug N’ Pups Pet Grooming Salon to set up a booth where they had doggie bling and pet clothes for sale as well as some of their all-natural tasty dog treats. Our employees got in on the fun and sported animal ears during our event. The customers who showed up with their pets also went home with a free photo with their furry friend from our Pet Photo Booth and a doggie goodie bag with animal related treats.

Throughout our event we raffled off some awesome prizes, gift certificates, dog toys and one lucky customer went home with a free dog grooming session at Hug N’ Pups Salon. This two hour event flew by with all the fun and activities but we can all agree that the dog costume contest was by far the highlight. Our customers dressed their pups in their finest and we saw everything from Hula Dogs to Cheerleader Dogs.

"Awwwwww!" was definitely the word of the day with over 10 dogs in costume! Make sure and check out our Flickr page to see all the dogs in their costumes and all the fun we had. Thanks to the non-profit organizations who came out to share the animal joy and especially to our animal loving customers!