It was the 127^th Maldon Easter Fair.  Maldon is a small historic gold-mining town in Central Victoria.  It’s well-known as Australia’s First Notable Town.  We decided to once again enter the parade.  Two years ago we had made a prize-winning float ‘Terriers Take Over Town’ and advertised the local paper by displaying on the backs of a number of JRs Jack Russell Terriers – a great breed, Tarrangower Times - a great read!  We decided to use the dogs again.  One reason was that for some months previous locals were waging a battle about dogs in the local paper.  We thought a banner with Maldon - Australia’s Notable Dog-Friendly Town would be a sufficiently tongue-in-cheek dig at the dog debate!  Coming up with a theme was one challenge.  We had a number of Commonwealth Games Volunteers’ uniforms, as members Rodger Madigan and Marg Brew had both been volunteers, as had a number of friends.  Linking the Commonwealth Games to Maldon was an even more difficult challenge. 

 

It was then we thought of doing the Maldon Commondogs Games Victory Parade.  We had little jackets we’d made for the dogs in the previous parade, so we decided that the dogs would wear them again and we’d pin victory medals on the coats.  Gold and silver plastic party plates were purchased and Rodger scribed around the outside Maldon Commondogs Games 2006 and in the centre either 1^st or 2^nd.  Then it was time to work out which athletes the dogs would represent.  This too proved challenging but highly entertaining (though at times politically incorrect)! 

 

Signs were printed for the dog walkers to carry, uniforms gathered, banners created and then it was off to Maldon to prepare for the big day.  On arrival we contacted some local JR owners.  They were amazingly obliging offering to lend us their JRs or to walk their JRs in the parade.  In our previous entry we had borrowed some pups from a local farmer.  We left a note on the farmhouse door and later that day the home owner rang us.  She informed us that the previous family had moved, but she could provide us with 2 JRs and her young daughter.  It was only after the parade that we learned the dogs had never been on a lead.  Young Mikey had trained them all weekend and even bathed them the night before and they had even been allowed inside the house to dry by the fire.  Her dogs walked superbly and didn’t care that they had to wear not only collars but coats too.

 

We had enough white coats for 10 dogs but by this stage had gathered 12, so we hurriedly made 2 more, but the only colour we had left were black.  We decided the two warring athletes Jana and Tamsyn should wear black.  Rodger obligingly offered his 2 dogs as the wayward athletes.  Sex became irrelevant as we had more female athletes than males; many dogs' coats hid gender confusion!  Lily became Jana PITBULL- Bitches 400m hurdles and Jock was TERRIER Tamsyn - Bitches disqualification race!  Marg Brew’s Sir Humphrey, started the parade as Craig MUTTRAN –Dogs 5,000 m - 'Beaten by a heeler!' but during the parade swapped and became Erica YAPPIBARKI – bitches bonelifting, when the young girl carrying the enormous bone-barbell tired so roles were swapped mid way!  Barbara Browne’s Ksefi has a penchant for balls, so she was MUTT Shirvington - On the ball - but not the baton!  Ksefi wore a medal with Oops! and completed the entire parade with a large ball in her mouth, Barbara carried the dropped relay baton.  To complete the victory parade we had the following athletes; John STEFFENDOG - Dogs 400m (naturally this was the roughest of the JRs available!), Jessicah SCHNIFFER - Bitches Butterfly, Russell BARKS - Dogs double trap, Melissa WUUUUF - Bitches synchronised diving (a young bitch named Darcey after the famous English ballet dancer Darcey Bussell) Kerryn McCANINE-Bitches Marathon, Kym HOWLER - Bitches Pole vault and Tatiana Grrrrrgrrrrieva - Bitches Pole vault.

 

We wanted our own John So.  Obligingly, Ben Out took on the role.  He wore a sandwich board saying This John SO says 'Give MALDON DOGS a GO!'  By the time of the parade Ben had perfected his John So giggle.  Rodger Madigan was Kennel Suttcliffe - dogumentary commentator extraordinaire!  During the parade he attempted to interview participants, the responses were entertaining.

 

On the Monday of the Easter Parade we met in a friend’s front yard to dress ourselves, the dogs and organise walkers for borrowed dogs.  As 12 dogs excitedly raced through the front gate we started to wonder what we had got ourselves into.  However with typical JR spirit, they all stood still long enough for us to pin on coats and organise their banners.  Each walker wore a sandwich board, one side saying Our John So says, ‘Give Maldon Dogs A Go’, the other, Maldon - Australia’s Notable Dog-Friendly Town!

 

Then we headed off to take our place in the parade.  Interestingly first time around town, locals appeared to think we were an organised protest.  The second time around there was guffaws as people read aloud each dog’s sign. 

 

We all had fun and contributed to the entertainment of the day.  Now our challenge is ‘What to do next year?’ 

We have promised to promote a local bio-dynamic olive grove.  We are really scratching our heads as to how we can link bio-dynamic olive oil to JRs. 

Any suggestions gratefully received!