Savannah Kennel Club hosts Wagfest

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) — Dog lovers from across the Savannah area gathered Saturday at the Guy Minick Youth Complex for this year’s Wagfest event.

There was a lot of tail wagging, racing, games and fundraising.

“A lot of people think the Kennel Club is just people who only love purebred dogs. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We all love dogs and we want all dogs to be happy,” said Donna Merkle, Community Outreach Coordinator.

And a tired dog is a happy dog, says Merkle.

So the Savannah Kennel Club hosted Wagfest, which had plenty of activities for local pooches to have fun and get tired of, including the Fast and the Furriest 5K-9 run- and fast cat, which is:

“It’s a hundred meter race for your dog. We have dock diving, we have rally, we have agility, all kinds of fun activities,” Merkle said.

“We are really lucky because we have a brand new foster family. The runner who ran with one of the shelter dogs this morning will bring this dog home and foster it, so this dog can thrive in a family environment and be adopted into a family,” said Rachel Weymouth .

The one who will love and care for it like the hundreds of families who showed up at Wagfest.

All proceeds from this year’s Wagfest will go to a good cause by purchasing what is called an AKC Reunite trailer for a neighboring county.

The trailer is an emergency shelter, equipped with a generator, 66 kennels, cleaning products, etc.

It would be used in situations such as hurricanes, tornadoes or even cases of animal hoarding.

Proceeds from last year’s Wagfest were used to get one for Chatham County Animal Services, which was dedicated on Saturday.

It’s something they hope they don’t have to use, but they feel good knowing it’s there if they need it in the event of an evacuation.

“Over the past couple of years we’ve been lucky enough to find different safe havens where we can take some of the animals we have, but sometimes it can be rare and sometimes more difficult to coordinate. It makes us a bit more self-reliant,” said Dr. Jake Harper.

Proceeds from this year’s Wagfest will be used to get an AKC Reunite trailer for Effingham County and they plan to have a dedication for it at next year’s Wagfest.

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