YAAS: National Pet Day

If you want to learn about the original conception and mission of this program, read my What is YAAS? post. TL;DR: It's a weekly group for youth age 14-24 where we'll be doing community service work, library programs, hosting guest presenters, and making connections with peers in a safe and welcoming environment.

National Pet Day is on April 11th every year. I started celebrating it at the library so I could have a standing program every April, but it's turned out to be a major hit. Last year's event even had a visit from our Vice Mayor!

The main idea of this holiday is to make sure our pets have great lives. I like to take it a step further by taking time to acknowledge all the homeless pets-to-be out there looking for their forever home. Our group made tug toys out of fleece to donate to a local animal shelter, and had a visit from a City of Mesa Animal Control officer and her adorable rescue puppy! 

This video shows the basic instructions for making a toy, but you can braid or twist it any way you want as long as it's nice and tight so it takes aggressive puppies a long time to chew all the way through. Using the same technique as a summer camp lanyard works very well, as does braiding for younger kiddos. It also turns out that chewing on fleece is good for a dog's teeth!