Hey party peeps, it’s Ella here. And if you think I look much wiser than I did last time I checked in, you’d be right—I turned seven last weekend!

And to celebrate, the fine folks at Mars Petcare threw me a city-wide birthday party in downtown Franklin!

More than 1,000 dogs and 4,000 of their humans came out for the occasion, too, donning their Sunday best in my honor!

OK, OK, perhaps it wasn’t all for me, but the president of the company was there to wish me well talk about why you humans should be embracing more of my kind (ahem, something I’ve been telling you for ages), and how the folks at Mars Petcare are making it their mission to spread the love across the United States.

“Pets can’t speak for themselves, so it’s up to people and communities to advocate for them and the many ways they make our lives better,” Mark Johnson, president of Mars Petcare North America, told us. “The BETTER CITIES FOR PETS™ initiative was created to bring together people, governments and organizations to represent the voice of pets and create change toward more pet-friendly cities—and our intent is for other cities to adopt the model we’re creating, taking this effort nationwide.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, Mark.

In fact, did you know that more than 84 million homes have pets in them? And that my kind is proven to relieve stress, encourage activity, help you develop empathy, boost your mood and increase social media activity?

I mean, I thought this was all common knowledge, but you humans are slower to pick up on scientific cues than us of the superior, lupus breed, so I won’t fault you if this is new information to you.

Mars Petcare’s headquarters in Williamson County is a pet-friendly work environment, and in addition to teaching businesses like shops and restaurants with patios how to be more accommodating to animals like me, the company also is trying to encourage more offices across the country to implement a pet-friendly workplace policy.

Seeing as they work out of my house, I go to work with Mom and Dad every day and fully endorse this idea. (I’m an excellent office manager, no big surprise.) Hope your own fur friend gets to tag along with you to your job on occasion, too!

The kick-off for BETTER CITIES FOR PETS™, which was hosted by everyone that matters in the state, took over all of downtown Franklin last Friday afternoon and part of Saturday, as well.

As I’m a proud born-and-bred Tennessean (other than that quick blip of a year living in San Francisco), I can’t believe that my parents kept me from Franklin for so long—they absolutely love my kind there.

Ninety-one local businesses participated in this pilot program—that saying “it takes a village” proves itself accurate once more—and if you’re following in my pawprints down through Franklin, you can figure out which ones will allow your own fur friend inside as they wear their “Pets Welcome” designation proudly (as well they should).

Mom and I shopped for pillows in Anthropologie. Dad and I picked up some things for the house in White’s Mercantile. We all poked around the historical strip of cute shops and local businesses and had a grand old time!

Mars had a sweet set-up right at the silly circle at the end of Main Street, and a number of the pup nation within were milling about, sniffing butts, finding remnants of treats on the ground and rabble rousing as we’re known to do.

There were pet behaviorists on site, adoptable dogs, a photo booth, a pop-up mini-dog park designed by the Nashville Civic Design Center and so many animal lovers that I couldn’t stop smiling.  I made new friends, big and small, and even humored a puppy or two by not eating them like a microwaved bean burrito.

Once I was all tuckered out, I took Mom and Dad down to Frothy Monkey for yappy hour. We sat outside the coffee shop and shared a few beers before heading home for the night.

It was basically the best birthday a girl could ask for.

Pup out,

Ella

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