The event was a success! The number of participants was capped at 30 during the sign-up period because we wanted to make sure the Shibas would not feel too crammed in this indoor play space. And all of them showed up, and some more. We had a great time.

After the event, we asked the participants to send in the pictures, and they did! You can browse them in full-screen size here. Those photos show you a very different picture of the event from what you see on this page. It is because our focus was on Kaiju, who wanted to be left alone most of the time…

This place, Crate Escape, is actually where Kaiju took his puppy kindergarten class two years ago. Today, we brought him there early so he would have a chance to get familiar with the space before a crowd of people and Shibas arrived. Luckily, he seemed to remember the place and walked right in without any hesitation. Knox was there already, too, and two of them ran around and sniffed around while we humans prepared the space for the event.

People began arriving with their Shibas, and the place was soon filled with laughter, bouncy curly tails, and lively chats. For us humans, it was all about reaching out and petting as many fuzzballs as we possibly could. Kaiju stayed calm, but mostly observant and distant. He received some love from humans, but he reciprocated to only a lucky few.

Knox was pretty much the only one Kaiju would willingly play. Kaiju would huddle around in the back space, and wait for Knox to come back in for him.

We watched his stress level but otherwise, we just let him be. At some point, though, we saw that Kaiju stood in the back room all by himself while all other Shibas happily ran around in the front room and outside. He was not even curious enough to check out the scene. We knew it was time give Kaiju a break. Paul drove Kaiju home and came back by himself. We originally anticipated having to take him home much earlier. We anticipated him to be more distressed. So, overall, we think Kaiju did really well!