This past weekend the exhibition halls at Paris’s Parc Floral turned into a pet lover’s play land when the 2011 Animal Expo rolled in with over 300 dogs, 700 cats, fish, birds, farm animals, reptiles and rodents. When I saw metro billboards displaying advertisements for the expo, I knew I had to go. A chance to play with all those dogs and cats–who wouldn’t want to attend?!
Mon mari and I headed to the event early on Saturday afternoon and were really wowed by the sheer number and diversity of animals on display. I knew were going to get more than just puppy play time when on our walk to the event entrance I saw someone leaving the expo carrying a plastic container holding a small, slithery snake! They’d obviously just purchased the new family pet!
After buying our tickets at the door, we decided to check out the smaller exhibition halls first. We saw sheep, rats, mice, iguanas, turtles, frogs, and more snakes than Samuel L. Jackson had on his plane. We couldn’t believe the number of attendees interested in taking home a snake! Some of the breeds were selling for 400 euros a pop!

As much as we enjoyed the movie Ratatouille, we knew a pet rat wasn’t in our future so we left the rodent and reptile party and headed to see the dogs and cats. Within a few steps of walking into the big exhibition hall, I felt like I was on the set of the film Best in Show except, instead of dogs, cats were the stars. The cat owners were clearly on break as many of them sat eating baguettes and talking shop while their felines lounged in luxurious cat carriers. I couldn’t help but imagine all of the cat intrigue going on!

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