More than 100 turn out for Shrewsbury sausage dog walk
Sausage dogs in Christmas jumpers might just become an unlikely new festive tradition in Shrewsbury.
More than 100 people and their sausage dog sidekicks walked through The Quarry as part of the Dachshund Through the Snow event.
The park was filled with the sound of barking as dozens of the little dogs played, many of them wearing clothes fit for the occasion.
The walkers were all part of the Shrewsbury Sausage Social Facebook group, which now boasts more than 320 members and is still growing.
The Christmas walk was the third event for the Sausage Social. Further walks were held in Summer and at Halloween, and more are already being organised for next year.
Vanessa Fairfax-Woods, who started the group and put together the walk, said she was thrilled the idea was becoming so popular.
The 38-year-old director of food company Shropshire Trading was leading the pack along with her own little companion, Audrey.
"We started in the summer, we did a Halloween one and this is the third one," she said. "It's hilarious – it's more noisy than anything.
"My friend has a dachshund and we kept meeting people who have them and we were saying how fun it would be to see them en masse.
"They're just silly dogs and it's good fun to get them all together and have a giggle. People seem to enjoy the social aspect as well."
As the group walked through The Quarry, other people stopped to see the full impact of the crowd of dogs.
The Christmas jumpers went down well with people on the sidelines. In the first event last summer, about 50 people turned out. At Halloween, the number of walkers have increased and members were dressing their dachshunds in pumpkin outfits.
"People like dressing up their dogs," Vanessa said. "It's just fun – that's what it's all about.
"People love it. What's nice is seeing people interact on the Facebook group, organising their own little things together.
"If you meet someone with a dachshund in town, they already know about the group."
The simple walk around The Quarry was designed to be open to anybody.
"We keep it quite accessible," Vanessa said. "We don't want people to think they can't come if they're disabled or can't walk very far. We always keep it in the Quarry. It's much about socialising and chatting rather than going on a big hike.
"It's definitely something we're going to be developing over the next year. We'll probably do a Valentine's Day one next. Maybe there will be a proposal – you never know!"
For more information about the group or about future walks, search for Shrewsbury Sausage Social on Facebook.
