Casey McKarnin’s dog Lilly is a fun-loving pooch.
When he takes her out for a romp, Casey, a third-grader at Jefferson Elementary School, noticed how much Lilly wagged her tail.
“A happy tail,” he called it.
With Iola’s new dog park about to open, Sonic Equipment Company asked for help in naming the park, scheduled to open before long. Casey remembered how much Lilly wags her tail when playing and thought Happy Tail Dog Park would be a good name.
So did judges deciding from among 278 entries.
“There were five ‘happy tail’ variations in the entries,” said April Desocio, Sonic employee and one of the judges. “But, Casey’s was the first entry we got with that name on it.”
Casey and Lilly will ride in today’s Farm-City Days parade, in a Sonic vehicle driven by Desocio. He also received four tickets to Sterling Six Cinema and a $20 gift card for concessions in a brief ceremony Friday morning at Sonic Industries.
Lilly’s happiness no doubt comes from how she became Casey’s best four-legged friend.
The dog was abandoned in the Walmart parking lot and taken in by Casey when she was just a tiny pup, said his grandmother, Jeanne McKarnin.
“We think she’s part rat terrier, but we don’t know what else,” said Jeanne, noting that Lilly’s too large to have just rat terrier in her ancestry.
Judges for the naming contest in addition to Desocio were Iola Councilman Don Becker, Ray Shannon, member of the Dog Park Committee, and citizens Angel Liberty and Jessica Morgan.
Casey is the son of Rob and Karen McKarnin.
Happy dog prompted park name
