After much convincing, last-minute pull outs, and 11th hour okays, we finally decided to drive all the way from Joisey to Long Island just to look at dogs (and hopefully Cesar Milan) and my sister. After picking my sister up in Queens, we headed straight to the shelter with Jessie in tow.

The North Shore Animal League America (NSAL) were launching a Pet Adopt-a-thon together with spokesperson Cesar Millan. The shelter is located at 25 Davis Avenue, Port Washington NY. The event officially kicked off on Saturday, May 1 at 9:00 AM and will continue through Sunday, May 2, 9:00 PM. It is said that they were over 700 dogs, cats, puppies and kittens available for adoption at this largest no-kill animal rescue and adoption organization. National Geographic’s own Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan was on hand for the opening ceremony and took on interviews later on.

The shelter wasn’t too far away, but the crowd was amazing. It’s good that the event drew that many potential adopters, but hopefully the adoptions will give these animals a second chance in life. The line was amazingly long, wrapping around the block. On our way to stand in line to get into the facility, we got a quick glimpse of Cesar who was doing interviews with local media. Lucky for us, we knew how to entertain ourselves to pass time. Many people who saw Jess was enamored with her. One family even asked me if I were putting Jessie up for adoption, as they looked at her longingly. I told them, “No,” but what I felt like saying was dream on. They look like the kind who if you gave gold to, it will quickly turn to sand.

Because the facility didn’t allow “outside” dogs to be in it, hubs stood outside with Jess while I went in with my sister first. As expected, the larger and older breeds were all ignored. Everyone clamored towards the smaller breed and puppies, which there weren’t much selection and the puppies were all the same mixed lab breed. Those forgotten, were sadly crouched at the corner of their cages, or asleep, oblivious to the noise and excitement around them. We did, however, see a terrier that interest us but who was asleep. My sister kept saying, “Loli (which is the dog’s name) wake up. Let us see your pretty face. Loli.  Loli.”

Nothing. Must have had a long night the day before.

We made our rounds, and finally got hubs in while we watched over Jess. Of course, the first thing that my sister does after coming out of the facility is to zero in on “The Strawberry Guy,” who she has eyed and quickly grabbed FREE strawberry dipped in chocolate to eat. After she was done with her strawberry, she started attacking her little cup filled with chocolate. Waste not want not is her motto. Of course, she ended up with chocolate on her face.

After that, instead of standing around, we decided to see if we can get into to camp Cesar. As we approached the tent, we asked a shelter worker if we could enter. He said yes. When we reached the tent, we saw a hurly-burly man standing guard at the make-shift door and asked if we can get in. He gruffly said, “VIP ONLY!” Ok then mister high-and-mighty. As we were about to head back to the facility and meet up with hubs, we happen upon a chocolate Cocker Spaniel. That dog was amazingly rotund and from the top, looked like a turtle with no legs. Then we looked up at the owner and we understood why. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. The owner was equally portly and had a belly the size of a pregnant woman about to pop!

Yeah, we are mean like that. That is how we entertain ourselves.

After a disappointing day, we just left Long Island and headed back to Queens, where we got Malaysian food in Elmhurst. Food wasn’t very good, but we got to have a meal together. It ended with black sesame ice cream for dessert that made our teeth look like we were avid smokers. Ah! What a day of doing absolutely nothing!

Doing nothing was absolutely tiring.