“Meet me at the blow-up dog,” I heard over my scratchy cell phone connection.

Reluctantly, and later rather than sooner – it being, after all, nearly the first official day of summer – I gathered myself and my six-pound rescue Chihuahua, Nibby, to move, barely.

The term “Dog Days” was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to describe the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rises just around sunrise (though our equinoxes have thrown this off).

The traditional timing of Dog Days is the beginning of July (dates are varied) to the middle of August. Typically these are the days when rainfall is at its lowest – certainly true for the Peninsula.

The ancients sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of Dog Days to appease Sirius, thinking he was the cause of the hot, dry weather.

‘Dog days of summer’ was coined about the same time as the phrase ‘lazy as a dog’ because people tend to do not much of anything during these sultry summer days.

Anyway, I figured I had a good excuse to sit and watch the beautiful world go by when my cell phone rang again – so I drove down to Bolstad for the festivities.

Fortunately there was no brown dog sacrifice going on when I arrived at the third annual Doggie Olympics – just family-friendly fun.

And, sure enough, I had no trouble finding the blow-up dog, all 20 feet of it, with its paw in the air and ‘Frontline’ (for you non-dog families, the name of a flea treatment) written on its forehead.

There was a tent for merchandise – Doggie Olympic bandanas, dog coats, sweatshirts and T-shirt (all for dogs). And a first-aid tent.

But the main attraction was the competitive events.

I arrived in the middle of the Nadia Comaneci Agility trials, divided into three height groupings. What I didn’t anticipate was that the owners had to be agile too – crawling through the hoops and trailing after Fido as he/she tripped over the teeter totter and touched all the orange cones.

I moved on to Arena ‘B’ to root for my favorite contestant in the ‘Rip Van Winkle Sleep Off’ (“dog lying down the longest without moving”). And rounded off my visit with the ‘Dunking for (hot) Dogs’ contest in Arena ‘A.’

Registration seemed a bit steep to me at $10 per event. But I heard that all the funds were going to our local humane society, a good cause, but was that true?

One of my favorite parts was hearing volunteer announcers, Dennis Howard and Michael Campellone, read off the contestant names (my version): “Fred, Cobber, Ziggy, Max, Justice, Spot, Camilla, Muffin, Leo, Cleo, Biffy, Tuffy, Muffy and Roman.”

And then, of course, the arrival of said contestants into the ring – all the huge, tall, skinny, small, brown, spotted, curly, buck-toothed, squashed-nosed, no tail, big tail, long-legged, squatty-legged, draggy-eared, bright-eyed range of them.

Next best was seeing the winners arranged on the Olympic ‘steps’ for first, second and third places, flashes popping.

The medals were paw prints hung on red, white and blue ribbons, in the appropriate colors – gold, silver and bronze – although there was no consensus about whether the medal went around the handlers’ necks or the dogs’.

Nice feel-good fun, though that $10 entry fee, per event (!), started to bug me.

So, on Monday, I made a few calls to find out just how much money was gathered and when the big check would be delivered to the South Pacific County Humane Society.

Keleigh Schwartz of beachdog.com, who designed a brilliant logo and brochure for the event, shared this, “The first year the humane society was the coordinating agency for the Doggie Olympics and the event was a fundraiser.”

“But the second and third years, the Long Beach Merchants’ Association took over the management and they have been the organizing agency,” she continued. “In fact they can’t donate to anyone or it would be considered an illegal gift of public funds.”

Steven Linhart, president of the merchants association, confirms and explains. “We took it over two years ago. So right now it’s considered just another festival. It’s designed to give our visitors someplace to bring their pets.”

“We want the Peninsula to be seen as a pet-friendly vacation spot,” Linhart says.

He goes on, “The funds go into the merchants’ association account. As a 501-C6 we are not a money making unit. We try to make enough money to cover the costs of the event, for the prizes, the T-shirts and merchandise. But we want to make that perfectly clear – we are not donating to the humane society.”

The merchants’ association puts on festivals using seed monies that come from the lodging tax for all hotels, motels and B&Bs on the Peninsula. A portion of every visitor’s fee for their stay goes into this tax fund – thus, Schwartz’s remark that there can be no donation of “public funds.” That’s the law.

Second-year volunteer master of ceremonies, Michael Campellone, had a different impression, as did many of the people at the event.

“The last organizing meeting I went to I asked about the fundraiser and thought I heard that they were hoping to give money to the humane society.”

When told that there would be no donation, Campellone seemed surprised.

“I did think it was a fundraiser for the humane society – that was the impression I got,” said Campellone. “But I would still volunteer again. They asked me and I said yes. It’s a fun event.”

Both Jill Grey, the event manager for the past two years, and Diane Galbreath, the director of the South Pacific County Humane Society, validated that no donation was expected.

Galbreath says, “I don’t think we’ll receive any money from the Doggie Olympics.”

Grey confirms, “After the first year, I think a decision was made by a combo of the shelter board and the Long Beach Merchants’ board that it was just going to be a festival to increase Peninsula business.”

“I don’t know all the whys and wherefores,” she adds. “But it’s true that visitors with pets have increased on the Peninsula.”

At the Lighthouse Resort, where Grey is the front desk person, the number of guests that bring a dog has increased from last year by 10 percent.

Schwartz explains, “Events don’t make money – that’s not why people throw events. It’s a matter of getting ‘more heads in the beds’ on the Peninsula. If you break even on an event that’s considered good. Whatever profit is made is rolled into next year’s event budget.”

“There’s no animosity about it. Anything that has people and dogs happily playing together is a good thing for the Peninsula.”

“I would rather that it be a fundraiser for the shelter,” Campellone says. “We’re pretty proud of our humane society down here.”

Our South Pacific County Humane Shelter is a no-kill facility and one of the best. Galbreath indicates that our shelter has one of the best records in the region for controlling the production of puppies and kittens.

“We have such a heavy hitting spay and neutering program on the Peninsula, that we’ve been reaching out to Hoquiam, Aberdeen, even Clatsop County and helping them when they get in a tight spot,” Galbreath says.

There are changes on the Doggie Olympics horizon. Grey will be heading to sunnier climes in Arizona where she will be closer to family. So Linhart says, “Let people know that we need a new chair- person for next year and more volunteers to make this work.”

Maybe there’s a way to combine both aspirations – a great business event with a festival that raises funds for our dog-and-cat-friendly shelter.

FYI dog-lovers: Schwartz says that this Friday is “National Take Your Dog to Work Day.” More info at Takeyourdog.com

And stay tuned next week for Dogs Days, Part Two – the wonderful “tail” of rescue greyhounds Wendell Oliver Williams (aka Mr. WOW), Delta Dawn, A-Moose and others.