Started 10 years ago by Cortez resident Ric Plese as a way to raise money for local humane societies, the 1-mile Trot around the park has grown to include more than 50 runners.<\/p>\n
Now run by For Pets\u2019 Sake Humane Society, funds raised through the Turkey Trot are used to support pets and pet owners in the local area.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of what we do is fundraising for neuters, spays and vet bills,\u201d explained race organizer and For Pets\u2019 sake board member, Sally Jo Leitner. \u201cWe buy pet food for people and dog houses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Far more than a fundraiser, however, the Trot provided local pet owners with an opportunity to exercise and dress up their pets in a fun community environment.<\/p>\n
Among the unique animals present at the trot was a llama, which, brought by Judy Garrigues, stood at attention as dogs and runners passed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to see people come out and do silly things,\u201d said race leader Jack Schuenemeyer. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough of that going on in the world today. It\u2019s absolutely great fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to take llamas in parades and pack them,\u201d added Garrigues. \u201cWe want our llamas to be real friendly with people whether they are in a parade situation or packing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A special event in more ways than one, the Turkey Trot promises to continue to be a staple Thanksgiving Day event in the Cortez community for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Started 10 years ago by Cortez resident Ric Plese as a way to raise money for local humane societies, the 1-mile Trot around the park has grown to include more than 50 runners. Now run by For Pets\u2019 Sake Humane Society, funds raised through the Turkey Trot are used to support pets and pet owners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-122752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122752"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=122752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}